ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways is geared up to augment freight trains from 10 to 15 during first 100 days of the new government, in order to curtail the discrepancy of the department.
According to sources, Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid has created a task force on freight trains for the perk up of this business.
Sheikh Rashid said that, “Pakistan Railway take home earnings are Rs 1,367.038 million which are comparatively supplementary then previous year till 20-10-2018. However, setting up of tracking system in the trains is at the final phase. After its completion there will be stern supervision on the movements of trains.”
He also added, fuel expenses will be condensed by almost 1 billion rupees per annum. Railways colonies will be surrendered to Wapda, because electricity is acquired from Wapda in huge volume on commercial rate and subsidized to Railways colonies on domestic rates.
Furthermore, he agreed that such steps will lead to massive savings in the account of Railways.
He also said that, some agreements under Freight Deposit Account (FDA) are also signed with Ms Maple Leaf Cement Factory and MoUs with Awan Trading Company, Chishtian Logistics.
Bestway Cement, Solution Enterprises. Fatima Group for transportation of Coal and Mughal Logistics for containerized traffic have been signed.
According to details provided by the sources, at present, the average of 9 to 10 freight trains are being functional from port as compared to one train in day in the year 2013.
Furthermore, competitive freight rates are also initiated in order to attract road traffic to rail.
Pakistan Railways has signed an agreement with Pakistan Freight Transportation Co. (PRFTC) for transportation of 12,000 MTs of Coal per day with running of five Coal trains everyday for Coal Fired Power Plant, Sahiwal and transportation of 345000 MTs per month of coal to Jamshoroo Power Plant per day with running of 5 trains per day.
In addition to this, Pakistan Railways has entered into agreement with Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for transportation of 200,000 million tons of petroleum products per annum from Karachi to north side destinations. However, a high competence/high speed hopper truck is also introduced in the existing fleet for rapid movement of coal.
