LAHORE:Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad Saturday apologized to thenation over inconvenience caused by derailment of a freight train nearRahim Yar Khan on April 02 which disturbed the trains schedule.
Addressing a press conference at the PR headquarters here, he hoped thenation would accept his apology.
The minister said that he had dissolved the investigation committee of theincident and a new committee would investigate under the supervision of PRChairman Sikandar Sultan Raja.He said that despite the disturbed schedule, passenger occupancy in thetrains had not been reduced and trains were running with over 80 per centoccupancy.
He said that there was no shortage of coaches in the railways and 200 moreupgraded passenger coaches would be inducted in the system within the onemonth, adding the railway workers were speedily working on it.
Sh Rashid informed that the railways had successfully win thetransportation of oil of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and a great revenuewas expected from this sector.
He said that an Air-Conditioned coach would be attached with Rehman BabaExpress train, runs between Karachi and Peshawar, to facilitate thepassengers.He also announced reduction in fare for children for Jinnah Express and nownew fare would be Rs 3000 for one child.Discussing the Main Line-1 upgradation project under the China PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC), he hoped the agreement would be signed betweenPakistan and China during Prime Minister Imran khan’s visit to China onApril 27.
He said the agreement would prove to be a revolution in the PakistanRailways.”We spent billions of rupees on roads but not a single penny was spent onrailway track during the previous governments,” he added.He thanked the nation for showing its trust in the railways.
About Royal Palm case, he said the Supreme Court had promised that it wouldgive verdict on April 11, whatever the decision would be.
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Sh Rashid said that Royal Palm administration had not deposited any amountto the railways since 2013 and running the hotel, cinema and marriage hallswithout paying any tax even.He said that tracking system would be installed in track machinery as wellas in the locomotives for better monitoring of these machines.
He warned the officers to work delicately, otherwise, they would not betolerated.
To a question, he said that about 11 locomotives were standby even rightnow so the perception was wrong that the railways rolling stock had beenfinished.
He said that the railways was planning to operate a new Saloon train forrich people to generate more revenue.He alleged that previous rulers purchased machinery in billion of rupeesbut it got failed during trial.He claimed that railways had saved about 1.5 million fuel during the lastsix months.
To a question, he said that Sharif family posed themselves as brave, addingthat they should face the courts and institutions, if they were brave andpresented themselves for accountability of looted money.
“They are trying to protect looted money and want NRO,” he said and addedthat London was their weakness.
