Railway track from Gwadar to Quetta will be constructed, says Rashid

QUETTA: Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that a railway track from Gwadar to Quetta will be constructed and further extended to Iran to cater future economic activities.

He was talking to media after his arrival in Quetta on a two-day visit.

He further said that a 1800-kilometres lengthy special railway track would be constructed under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project to link Gwadar with rest of the country.

Gwadar had great importance for the economic development of the country as there was no such port in the entire world, he added.

Rashid said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to China was very important, adding that during the visit new projects linked to the CPEC would be discussed. He said railways could boost the country’s economy and a Quetta-Gwadar rail link would be beneficial for the CPEC.

The minister said that he was giving attention to running goods trains to increase the income of the department because passenger trains could not earn profit. “Five goods trains could be given to the private sector if railways itself could not earn profit from them,” he said.

The government had decided to improve railway tracks across the country and initial survey of tracks had been completed, he further said.

He added that previous government had brought the nation to a point where it was difficult to even pay foreign loans, and therefore Pakistan was compelled to go to International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The government will bring the nation out of these problems, there should be no confusion regarding it. If friendly countries do not help us then we will compelled to go to the IMF,” he said, adding that people should not feel dejected and hoped that the economic situation would improve within a few years.

He vowed to pull Pakistan Railways out of financial deficit within one year, and increase profit to ten billion rupees. He added that Gwadar port was an unprecedented project all over the world.