Railways department restores Mianwali Express service after seven months

KALABAGH: Apparently in order to provide economical intra-city commuting services to the citizenry, the railways ministry has restored on Friday its Mianwali Express after seven months since the service was suspended, ARY News reported.

The service was previously closed indefinitely in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, to contain the spread of the global pandemic, in April, however, the railways department has announced today to resume it. The first train has departed for its destination Lahore from its Mari Indus origin station.

Reportedly, people of the town celebrated the development as they could travel directly to Lahore in rather economic ticket fares and in volumes as the train carries eight bogies.

READ: Pakistan Railways to hand over eight trains to private sector

In the earlier development taking place in the previous week, Pakistan Railways decided to outsource commercial management of eight passenger trains to the private sector in order to provide better passenger facilitation to the travelers.

The railways 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 privatized.

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.