PESHAWAR – Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Sunday inaugurated high speed ‘Rehman Baba Express’ train from Peshawar to Karachi and keeping in view of low paid workers it has a record low fare of Rs1,350 for 26-hour journey instead of 34-hour as earlier.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Sheikh Rashid termed the new train ‘Rehman Baba Express’ as a big achievement of Pakistan Railways. “It is actually a gift of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the brave Pakhtoon nation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP),” he said.
Information Minister KP Shoukat Yousazai, Adviser to Chief Minister on IT Kamran Bangash, Nazim Peshawar Muhammad Asim, Chairman Railways Raja Sultan Sikander, GM Aftab Akbar, Division Superintendent (DS) Waqar Ali Shahid, officials, workers and a large number of passengers going to Karachi on ‘Rehman Baba Express’ were also present.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said ‘Rehman Baba Express’ would not only reduce the traveling time between Peshawar and Karachi but also facilitate passengers on affordable fares.
He said low-fare ‘Rehman Baba Express’ would facilitate travelers by saving their precious time. He informed that 20 new trains and three tourist trains would be launched in 2019 while the government was also planning to start two VVIP trains along with fleet trains for the business and traders community from Karachi to Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar.
The minister said the number of trade trains would also be increased up to fifteen for boosting economic activities.
About the ML-I, the minister informed that an agreement would be inked in March next year for placing new railway track from Karachi to Peshawar, adding the government would change the infrastructure of railway tracks in the country.
He said after laying of new tracks from Peshawar to Karachi, it would become viable to run a train over a speed of 160 to 260 km per hours which could further decrease the traveling time between Peshawar to Karachi to 8 hours. He said he would monitor the operation of trains and take result-oriented steps to bring further improvement in working of railways.
He said up-gradation of railways would also help increasing economic activities in the country. “We have introduced 20 trains in 100 days which is a record and it was not imported from elsewhere rather the workers and laborers of Railways worked day and night for complete revamping and rehabilitating the engines and other things to make ensure things in order,” he added.
He said the government was also going to introduce three Safari Trains to promote tourism. He said that for facilitating the business and traders community the PR was going to run eight to 10 fleet trains carrying with more weights. He said on Dec 25, 2018, a container train would be opening up from Karachi and the second such container train would be launching on January 25, 2019, so that to extend due facilities to the business and traders community.
“We have in need of Rs 35 bln for pensions, Rs 30 bln for salaries and Rs 25 bln of loans so running more these training along with facilitating the passengers and business and traders community on low rates are some big challenges the Railways are facing but with the help of Almighty Allah we are committed to bringing PR on track both financially and facilities wise and I am assured enough to achieve our targets,” he remarked.
He said from January 1, the PR would be launching a winter train for just one month to coup up the need and facilitates the people coming from one city to other. He disclosed that the tickets of the ‘Rehman Baba Express’ have been sold out in advanced.
Sheikh Rashid said it has also decided to run a Rail-Car train in the morning at 8.00 a.m and 10.00 a.m during fog from Lahore to Rawalpindi and Rawalpindi to Lahore to facilitate the general public.
