PR plans to upgrade five major railway stations

LAHORE: Ministry of Railways was planning to upgrade country’s five major railway stations on modern lines to facilitate the passengers and help the department to generate more revenue.

According to state-run news agency, the purpose to upgrade the railway stations is to make them commercial hubs for business activities and facilitate the passengers.

The five railway stations include Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Quetta. The PR official said that the decision was made in line with the direction of Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique.

He further said that the government was taking several steps to improve the performance of Pakistan Railways and would provide maximum facilities to the masses.

Earlier, it emerged that Pakistan Railways was planning to procure as many as 25 diesel-electric locomotives for various shunting points across the country which would help to replace outdated locomotives that to be soon be scrapped.

The project for the procurement and manufacturing of 25 shunting locomotives would be implemented in three years at an estimated cost of Rs. 14 billion, sources in the Ministry of Railways told state-owned APP.

Currently, they said that only 51 locomotives were being operated for this service against the 98 shunting points at various railway stations across the country. Additionally, most of the old locomotives would be discarded due to high maintenance costs.