Govt determined to make Railways ‘the best’

Rafique reiterates resolve to uplift transport network under CPEC

LAHORE: Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said Saturday that the government was determined to convert Pakistan Railways into one of the best transportation networks in the region.

Addressing the media during the welcome ceremony of the Quetta-bound Jaffar Express Train on its first journey from Peshawar, Rafique said extension of the route between the two cities will link the people. “The extension of the train route from Peshawar to Quetta is a major step in the history of Pakistan Railways and exhibits our national unity,” he said.



The minister informed that a few decades earlier, the Chiltan Express Train operated from Quetta to Peshawar and now the Jaffar Express would run on this route. He added that Pakistan Railways was on a successful track despite its hurdles, problems and limited resources and was continuously making progress.



Rafique also said that several agreements to uplift the country’s railway system will be signed during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to China.

“After the upgrade of Main Line 1 (ML-1) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the project will start where trains will run at 160 km/hr in the future,” he said. “There is also a strategy under process to convert unmanned and signal-less level crossings into signalled ones.”

The minister further said that all three rakes of the Jaffar Express Train will be upgraded in the next three months; however, the upgraded rakes of the Pak-Business Express Train will be inaugurated soon.



“Spared coaches from these trains will be attached to the branch line trains,” he said, adding that outsourcing of the trains was a good experiment and more trains would be outsourced in the future. He also hoped that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government would welcome the extension of Jaffar Express Train. APP

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2017.

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