Islamabad:
The Federal Railroad Minister Hanif Abbasi has said that significant efforts are being made to modernize the Pakistan railroads with the improvement of the roads and the digitalization of several processes.
During an informal interaction with journalists on Thursday, he said that a great investment in the railroads had not been made during the last eight years, but now the situation had changed.
He said that the sale of tickets on the railroads has already been digitized, with passengers capable of buying tickets through 16 banks, as well as Easypaisa and Ufone Bank.
He said that ticket controllers will also be equipped with portable machines to stop the evasion of rates, which currently causes losses of around RS1 billion annually.
“The Railroad Ministry has become an electronic office, with plans for digital operations inspections. We will generate income through load operations and use it to subsidize passenger services,” he added.
According to infrastructure projects, Abbasi said that a 480 kilometers from Rohri to Karachi was being planned, with officials from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) who was expected to extend cooperation.
He said the ministry is also involving with the government of Sindh on the Rohri -Sukkur track, and with the Baluchistan government for the work between Sheikh Zayed and Kuchlak.
“Meanwhile, the Punjab government will build the Lahore-Rawalpindi track and install free Wi-Fi in 40 railway stations. In addition, the Punjab Tourism Department will adopt the Taxila, Rawalpindi and Lahore stations.”
Abbasi said the work was underway in the remaining portions of ML-1, while the development in ML-3 of Nokundi to Rohri would also begin soon.
He added that 11 trains were outsourced, with an offer to start from RS3.07 billion.
In international connectivity, Abbasi revealed that a project is being planned to link Kohat, Kharlachi and Mazar-Sharif with Uzbekistan, with Pakistan and Uzbekistan assigning $ 5 million each for feasibility studies.
Separate, Abbasi said that the Institute of kidneys and Liver of Pakistan (PKLI) in Lahore would begin the kidney transplants from October of this year.
