Railway earns Rs12.267bn from freight business in two years

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has earned around Rs. 12.276 billion from the freight trains during first two years of the present government, making a leap towards transformation of the organization into a profitable entity.

“The freight train service suffered no loss during the last two years due to prudent policies introduced by the incumbent government,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.

Giving detail of the earnings, he said the department had generated Rs. 18.853 billion against the expenditures of Rs. 12.950 billion, posting a profit of Rs. 5.903 billion during 2018-19.

In 2019-20, the official said Pakistan earned Rs. 19.208 billion against the expenditures of worth Rs. 12.835 billion, saving a profit Rs. 6.373 billion.

To a question, he said that at present as many as 18 trains were operational from Karachi to Hyderabad, while no train was operational from Karachi to Mirpur Khas.

He said the trains plying between the two major cities of Sindh province were included Shalimar Express, Hazara Express, Awam Express, Rehman Baba Express, Pakistan Express, Allama lqbal Express, Karakoram Express, Pak Business Express, Millat Express, Karachi Express, Tezgam, Bahauddin Zakria Express, Shah Hussain Express, Fareed Express, Sir Syed Express, Green Line, Khyber Mail and Sukkur Express.

About the overall passenger trains operation across the country due to COVID-19, he said limited trains were operating and only 60 against 142 trains were plying in UP and Down direction.

Therefore, the official said there was no proposal under consideration for starting new passenger train from Peshawar to Sargodha and Rawalpindi to Karachi at the moment.

At present, he said the passenger trains were running between Rawalpindi-Peshawar-Karachi included Khyber Mail, Pakistan Express, Tezgam, Awam Express, Rehman Baba Express, Sir Syed Express and Hazara Express.