Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed has claimed that "there is an increase of Rs 1 billion in Railways earnings in the first fifty days of government." While addressing a press conference here on Saturday at Railway headquarters he further claimed that "he will bring 100 new coaches on the track in a month after refurbishing and repairing."
More than 600 coaches are non operational and dead. "We will bring, at least 100 coaches on track, out of it in every month. Engineers of Resalpure factory and Mugulpura workshop had been given target to rehabilitate these dead and out of order coaches," the minister maintained.
Talking about the various improvements in the different sectors of the Pakistan Railways he said, "We are improving the catering service on Green Line train and will also ensure WiFi is available on three trains in the coming week."
He said that tracking system will be installed in all locomotives. "We have installed WiFi at Sukkur and Rohri train stations," he added. He said, "We have also made a task force to make freight trains more functional, efficient and profitable.
He further said, fares for Bolan Express from Karachi to Quetta have been reduced from Rs 1200 to Rs 700, whereas the fare of a train berth on Akbar Express from Quetta to Lahore has been reduced from Rs 1000 to Rs 800. Criticizing the previous government, the Railways minister said, "We were given thieves and robbers in dowry. Shahbaz Sharif is a bigger thief than Nawaz Sharif."