Railways hands over Tezgam Express to private sector

KARACHI: The Pakistan Railways has outsourced commercial management of three more passenger trains including Tezgam Express to the private sector in order to provide better facilities to passengers, ARY News reported on Friday citing sources.

According to well-placed sources, Pakistan Railways has outsourced three train services, which would now be run under the public-private partnership later this month.

The PR has also issued instructions to the booking authorities to immediately stop their reservations.

The three outsourced trains are the Subuk Kharam, the Rawal Express and the Tezgam. The Subuk Kharam, the Rawal Express would start operations under the private operator from June 16, while the operations of the Tezgam would start from July 1.

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.