Railways offers more trains to private investors
“We have invited interested parties to submit bids to run four trains,” said a railway official. He said the private investors have been invited through an advertisement and interested parties have been asked to submit their documents by April 16, 2012. The applications are available – after interested parties deposit Rs30,000 – from concerned offices; and only firms offering better technical and financial bids will be eligible to win the contract. He said the four trains planned to be run under partnership agreements include 101 Up Subakraftar, 102 Down Subakraftar, 103 Up Subakkhuram and 104 Down Subakkhuram.
In the next phase, the official said six other trains would be offered for public-private partnerships. The three other pairs of trains being offered for partnership with private parties include the Farid Express, Shahin Express and Super Express.
According to an official, the operations of Subakraftar were suspended around six months ago due to fuel shortages. Moreover, the official said an agreement worth Rs500 million has already been signed with NLC for the repair of 30 locomotives at railway workshops; expected to be completed within eight to 10 months.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2012.
COMMENTS (3)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Have not tried the journey but reports from those who have are all positive.
well i dont think its a good idea, cause it will monpolise the railway institute. Those capalist who are interested to invest, they wont let government to provide subsides route for the masses. Even it will futher corrupt the system and eventually people will have to pay higher to get reasonable services.
i travelled to lahore last week on business train and i must say that it was a wondeful experience and i reached one hour earlier. and services during journey were ezxcellent.