Railways all set to start 14 local trains in Sialkot District

Trains will be equipped with Wi-Fi and canteen facilities

SIALKOT: In a bid to facilitate passengers, the Ministry of Railways is all set to start 14 local trains in Sialkot District, including Sambrial and Pasrur under public-private partnership.

A railways official said that the Pakistan Railways and private company were endeavoring to restore 14 deserted railway stations, including Sohawa, Begowala, Sambrial, Saahowala, Uggoki, Sialkot, Naseerabad, Gunnah Kalan, Alhar, Chawinda and Pasrur.

He added the trains would facilitate more than four million population of Sialkot District by providing them with improved railway journey facilities. The official said all the necessary arrangements in this regard had also been finalised by the Pakistan Railways and the private company.

The official maintained that 14 railway stations were in a dilapidated condition for the last several years due to the negligence of the previous governments.

He elaborated that Pakistan Railways and private sector will jointly run the trains from Sialkot junction railway station to Pasrur and from Sialkot to Wazirabad via Sambrial.  He said that each of these trains would carry 1,800 passengers. The local trains will be carrying Wi-Fi and canteen facilities.

“The local trains will have eight bogies each to facilitate the local people,” the official said.

“Elderly people and children under the age of 10 years will enjoy free journey while the students will get 50% special discount,” he pointed out.

He said that the project had been kicked off under the Pakistan Railways rehabilitation work of the railway stations lying deserted for years.

Earlier in 2017, the Pakistan Railways finalised arrangements for the upgrade and construction of more than 50,000 kilometres of tracks across the country on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.

In this regard, the railways ministry invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) for the pre-qualification of contractors, after which 10 companies were selected through a bidding process.

Officials said that rehabilitation and improvement of existing tracks would also be carried out to achieve higher speeds of up to 160 km per hour for which feasibility studies of some of the sections were being conducted. The BOT mechanism will resolve financing issues, which have remained one of the main hurdles in the way of implementing various projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2018.