Pakistan Railways hands over KCR, Shah Latif Express to private sector  

KARACHI: Pakistan Railways has decided to hand over Shah Latif Express and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project to the private sector to be run under the Public-Private Partnership mode, ARY NEWS reported.

Shah Latif Express which runs between Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas generated revenue of Rs20 million monthly.

The company that had won the bid for the express train offered Rs1.33 billion and would be bound to submit more than Rs2.5 million to the Pakistan Railways in advance as payment before every week.

In October 2020, it was reported that the Pakistan Railways had decided to outsource commercial management of eight passenger trains to the private sector in order to provide better passenger facilitation to the travellers.

The railway department sought proposals from the private sector for the outsourcing of commercial management of the passenger trains. In a statement, the spokesperson of the railway department said that eight passenger trains are being privatised.

The trains include Karachi-Rawalpindi Sir Syed Express, Karachi-Havelian Hazara Express, Karachi-Lahore Shalimar Express, Lahore-Mari Indus Mianwali Express, Lahore-Sialkot Narowal Passenger, Karachi-Mirpur Khas Mehran Express, Lahore-Multan Moenjo Daro Express and Lahore-Multan Badar Express.

It emerged that proposals have been sought for three routes for Moenjo Daro Express passenger train including Karachi-Multan en route Jacobabad, Kotri-Multan en route Jacobabad and Kotri-Sukkur en route Dadu.

Under the privatisation plan, the trains’ staff will be managed by the private sector, however, locomotives, bogies, technical assistance and fuel will be provided by the railway management.