ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Railways presently is operating average 12 freighttrains per day from Karachi port to different up destinations to generaterevenue for the department.
Besides, at any given time there are about 60 freight trains on track overthe system, a senior official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.
He said the freight operation generated revenue of Rs. 12,272.638 millionin the financial year 2016-2017 and Pakistan Railways was playing a vitalrole in the transportation of goods across the country.
Recently Pakistan Railways has transported imported fertilizer to differentparts of the country for Ministry of Industries and Production. Owing tosuccessful operation, other private companies were also approachingRailways for the transportation of fertilizer from ports to upcountry, headded.
He said that traditionally railways used to originate four to five trainsof furnace oil from Karachi to upcountry. Due to change in governmentpolicy the import of furnace oil has been discontinued. Now Railwayapproached PSO at the highest level to transport High Speed Diesel (HSD)from Karachi to Taru Jabba and Chakpirana.
The loading of HSD for above stations has been started from April andagreements have been executed with different companies for thetransportation of coal in Hopper Wagons from Karachi Port to Jia Bagga,Faisalabad and Kundian stations, he said.He said the companies are developing mechanized unloading facilities atFaisalabad, Jia Bagga, Kundian and Khushal Kot stations on Build OperateTransfer (BOT) basis.
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To a question, he said that it is not a fact that the trains are operatingbetween Quetta and Chaman with insufficient facilities and only one train,Chaman Passenger is operating on the route on daily basis and completes itsround trip in daylight.
He said in summer season, actual rake composition of the train consists ofsix coaches whereas in winter season the train is running with fourcoaches due to less than 30 percent occupancy which is considered quitesufficient to meet the present requirement.All the coaches are intact with all public amenities like availability ofwater and lighting system which are regularly checked before departure ofthe train and any deficiency is recouped accordingly, he added.
The official said that in the summer season, due to availability ofsufficient day light, electric lights are rarely used. However,arrangements have been made to illuminate the coaches in case train runsafter sunset.
