Government plans to add 20 new cargo trains by the end of this year, in view of overwhelming response from the traders, who transported around 15,000 tons of goods in a month through the first freight service. Pakistan Railways Freight Transport Company (PRFTC) and Marine Group began the freight service under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The service was launched on Dec 25, 2018 when first train left Karachi for Lahore. The maiden train transported over 2300 containers in a month. The second freight train took about 75 containers on Friday. "Our plan is to add 20 more passenger and 20 cargo trains to the existing railways services by end of the year under the PPP," Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid said on Friday at a ceremony on the departure of the second freight cargo train to Lahore from the Karachi Cantonment station.
He said that the headquarters of freight train service would be shifted to Karachi from Lahore shortly. He said it would facilitate importers and exporters besides local traders.
"The fright services will bring more revenues resources for the railways," he hoped. The Minister also announced the launch of first of the two planned VVIP train services on Mar 23 to take passengers from Karachi to Lahore. "I will spend entire February on board of trains to register my name in The Guinness Book of Records," he said.
Sheikh claimed that billions of dollars investment is coming to railways in the days to come. He asserted there would be a revolution through ML-1 (Main Line 1) Project that is meant for replacing tracks from Karachi to Peshawar. He said that on replaced tracks, trains would run at the speed of 160 per kilometre. He claimed that Railways saved more than one million litres in just four months.
The government also plans to spread railroads across Sindh to help facilitate a maximum number of passengers on a daily basis, he said, asking Sindhis to get ready he was going to spread railways network across Sindh province. "The revival of KCR has become unavoidable to ease transport problems of Karachi," he said, asserting that the long-delayed intra-city project would never be accomplished if not done during the PTI government tenure. He said the federal government is taking stakeholders into confidence. However, those trying to impede the Karachi Circular Railway project revival would be bulldozed, he warned.
Managing Director (MD) Marine Group Asim Siddiqui said on the occasion that the first train service has received an immense response from importers and exporters. Within one month, an estimated 55,000 tons of freight via more than 2300 containers have been transported through 36 scheduled freight carriers between Karachi and Lahore. Each train will give Rs750 million to PR per year. The potential in the PR''s freight train service is some Rs30 billion, he reiterated.
He said 2300 containers handled during January. He said that after introducing cargo handling, the business community''s trust has been improved on railways and they give preference to the train service as their cargo reaches their destinations safe and sound. He said now exporters too switching to the freight trains considering it more economical and safe. The CEO of PRFTC, Zafar Ranjha, also spoke and said that after introducing freight train, Railways had increased about 35 per cent revenue.