ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Railways is all set to outsource the commercialmanagement of its eight passenger trains to transform the department into aprofitable entity. The passenger trains included Sir Syed Express, HazaraExpress, Shalimar Express, Mianwali Express, Narowal Passenger Train,Mehran Express, Moenjaodaro Express and Badr Express, an official in theMinistry told APP.
He said Pakistan Railways had already outsourced the commercial managementof six passenger trains including Lasani Express, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, AttockPassenger Train, Jand Passenger Train, Freed Express and Mehr Express. Theofficial said Pakistan Railways was earning Rs 1539 million from thealready outsourced trains while the bids amounting to Rs. 1718 million werereceived against them. He said the recent decisions had resulted in abenefit of Rs 179 million per annum for Pakistan Railways. About the stepstaken by the government to decrease the deficit of the department, he saidin the passenger sector, commercial management of luggage vans and breakvans with different trains were being outsourced. The official said theonline e-ticketing had been introduced to facilitate passengers and attractthem towards rail travel. He said the passenger fares had been revised ascompared to road-travel charges, which resulted in a significant increasein the number of passengers and a proportional increment in revenuegenerations.
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Regarding the corrective measures taken in the freight sector, he saidFreight Deposit Account stood at approximately Rs. 2.5 billion, based onagreement with Maple Leaf Cement Factory.
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The Chishtian Logistics, Mughal Iron and Steel and MOUs with BestwayCement, FF/ Steel, Fatima Group for transportation of Rock Phosphate andPak Pacific Container Terminal for containerized traffic had been signed,he added.
He said the introduction of competitive freight rates to attract roadtraffic to Railways. High capacity/high speed hopper trucks have beeninducted in the current fleet for swift movement/unloading of coal, headded.
