LAHORE – Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Saturday said that anonline Railways ComplaintCentre would be set up in Islamabad from February 15 for addressing thecomplaints of passengers regardingrailways immediately.He announced this while addressing a press conference here at PakistanRailways Headquarters. He said that citizens would be able to lodge theircomplaints round the clock regarding any issue of the railways likemisbehaveof railways staff or about cleanliness through phone or website.The minister said a number of ticket dodgers had been reduced after acampaign against them, however, it had been decided to keep suchticket-dodgers in jail or lockup besides heavy fines to curb this practice.He said the railways had to bear a loss of Rs 60 million per week due toticket-dodgers which was a huge amount.He informed that it had been decided to bring some structural changes inthe railways and 5 railways companies including RailCop, PRACS would beconverted into two companies soon..The minister said that experiment of installation of tracking system inlocomotives had been completed and the next week, Prime Minister ImranKhan would inaugurate the tracking system in trains after which citizenswould be able to track location of any train during travelling.He said that this system had been presented by an engineer Mudassar withoutany cost. He said that implementation on the introduction of 20 morepassenger trains would be started from March, however,a new freight train was being launched from January 25 from Karachi.”A number of freight trains will also be raised from 8 to 20,” he said.Sheikh Rashid said that he would remain in the trains and at railwaystations during the month of February to observe performance of therailways.”Special cleanliness and suaveness campaign in the railways will beoperated,” he added.He said that the PR would install water filtration plants at railwaystations across the country so that clean drinking water could be providedto passengers.He thanked the citizens for their cooperation and said the railways was farahead of it given target in revenuewith the support of the people..The minister informed the media that new contracts of catering would begiven and now the contractors would also be responsible for cleanliness intrains and railway stations.”Seven railway stations will be renovated in February,” the minister said.To a question, he said that modernization of MainLine-1 under China-PakEconomic Corridor (CPEC) with the cooperation of China was his dream and hewished he could present this gift to the nation as soon as possible.
Pakistan Railways launches multiple new initiatives
