Pakistan Railways: News & Updates

[Muhammad Omar]

C'mon! You consistently present dishonest intentions regarding PTI when you present half-truths. These weren't Local Bodies Elections Pakistan wide; they were CANTONMENT BOARD elections. This wasn't like the Pakistan wide Local Bodies Elections during Musharraf years which brought forward somebody like Mustafa Kamal in Karachi as the city's mayor.

General Elections, By-Elections, Cantonment Board elections, are three completely different things.

And that Danish Saleem guy was actually agreeing with you.

yeah so What? Aren't Cantonment people supporters of PTI?

 

[NaMaloom]

yeah so What? Aren't Cantonment people supporters of PTI?

Read my previous comment to Danish Saleem. Cantonment Board elections are different from General Elections.

 

[ziaulislam]

so over draft/loses is still at 36 billion rupees.
just pension,pay and fuel price is over 31 billion rupees not including repairs.

anyway lets hope railway becomes profitable co operation rather than govt owned in next 3 years

 

[BaybarsHan]

look at 4:10

Çok yüksek hızlı tren ilk seferine başladı - Video 7

cant input this video here

 

[Edevelop]

Green Line

Engineers from China Railway Signal and Communication Co Ltd test outdoor equipment in Pakistan

 

[Muhammad Omar]

Green Line

Engineers from China Railway Signal and Communication Co Ltd test outdoor equipment in Pakistan

And People complain that quality of Food is not good and they didn't get any of the food or even tea... Face Palm

Engineers from China Railway Signal and Communication Co Ltd test outdoor equipment in Pakistan... are they going to digital the system??

 

[ghazi52]

.................................
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Competition forces Pak Business Express to bring new features

LAHORE: In the face of stiff competition from the Pakistan Railways’ recently launched Green Line Train, the management of Pak Business Express has introduced several value-added features to its services in a bid to maintain its edge.

“We are experiencing fierce competition now, therefore, it is imperative to show railway commuters that we still have lots of services to offer,” said Mian Shafqat Ali, Director Operations of Pak Business Express, while talking to The Express Tribune.

In an effort to protect its market strength, the Business Express management recently unveiled new services including a pick and drop service in Lahore. It provides free pick-and-drop facility to the commuters to and from four main points of the city. The response, according to Ali, is good and travellers are using the facility to avoid traffic disruption.

Pak Business Express was the first public-private partnership model in railway services, which kicked off back in February 2012.

Though at the beginning of operations of Business Express, consumers faced some disruption in services like Wi-Fi, video and music channels on LCD, but those were resolved with time.

The Green Line Train project of Pakistan Railways was initiated more or less on the model of Business Express.

Pakistan Railways General Manager Javed Anwar recently told The Express Tribune that the purpose to start this service was to make people realise that the Pakistan Railways was also capable of operating high-quality train services.

Since Green Line Train is an Islamabad-Karachi bound service and Business Express runs on Lahore-Karachi tracks, there is a possibility that travellers may opt for Green Line, since its touches several cities on its way to Islamabad.

“We are launching another service to connect Lahore with some important cities,” Ali said, adding with this Lahore would become a transit city for many travellers.

Elaborating on the service called “Intercity Service”, Ali said they would provide air-conditioned coaches in cities like Islamabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Rawalpindi and Murree.

In addition to these, Pak Business Express has also revealed plans to upgrade telecom services to the fourth generation network for better internet connectivity while travelling.

The competition is improving services and is working for the benefit of the common travellers.

“Thanks to the increased competition, the travellers are experiencing ideal services,” said Arsalan Haider, a frequent traveller to Karachi. “This is the power of free market which forces the railways to start a train with quality services, which previously was losing the ground to public-private-partnerships,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2015.

 

[Muhammad Omar]

LAHORE: A Chinese consortium will invest $1.8 billion in the Pakistan Railways (PR) infrastructure to facilitate transportation of fuel to the sites where coal power projects are being installed.

An agreement to the effect was signed between PR Freight Transportation Company (PRFTC), a subsidiary of the Pakistan Railways and Huaneng Shandond Ruyi (Pakistan) Energy Pvt Ltd, and the Chinese consortium working at Sahiwal Coal Power project, at a ceremony at the PR headquarters in Lahore on Monday.

“The agreement is for 30-year partnership and is part of the Pak-China Economic Corridor Project; the PR will earn Rs13.65 billion annually,” Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique told newsmen after the pact was inked by PRFTC Managing Director Zafar Zaman Ranjha and Huaneng Shandond Ruyi Vice General Manager Zeng Ming on behalf of their organisations.

In order to meet the fuel requirement of the 1,320 megawatts Sahiwal Coal Power Project, the first of its kind in Pakistan, the PR had started upgrading its rolling stock and rehabilitating its track and other infrastructure.

Plan envisages fuel supply to coal project sites

“The PR has never carried out such a huge operation of coal transportation. It is a challenge for the PR. We have started preparation for it. The bidding process to procure 55 locomotives, each of 4,000 horsepower, is in final stages. The state-of-the-art locomotives will be procured from reliable and tested manufacturer at reasonable prices. We will also request the successful bidder to supply locomotives within the shortest possible time. We are working on the conveyer belt from Port Qasim to Bin Qasim, lay rail tracks to link Quetta with Peshwar, Chaman with Spin Boldik, Peshawar with Jalalabad and other routes,” said the minister.

The efforts to get the PR back on the rails have started bearing fruit. “The PR is earning approximately Rs31 billion at present. Some 12.5 million more passengers have started using trains and our income from freight sector has touched the Rs8.2 billion figure. However, we are still in deficit,” said Mr Rafique while adding that railways required a one-time lump sum injection of Rs1,000 billion for its total rehabilitation.

To a question, the minister said in spite of hike in the POL products’ prices, there was no proposal under consideration to revise the rail fares. Increase in rail fares had been linked with the provision of facilities to passengers.

Praising the efforts put in by rail workers in particular and officers in general for the revival of the PR, the minister said all the employees would get pay raise in accordance with the increase to be announced for government employees in the upcoming federal budget.

“Rest assured, there will be no privatisation of the railways. There is no need in fact. We are introducing successful models of public-private partnership to increase our income,” he said.

The railways had demanded Rs45 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme for the next fiscal. “Hopefully we will get Rs41 billion and 80 per cent of these funds will be utilised for completing ongoing development projects while with the remaining amount work on some new uplift plans will be initiated,” the minister said.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2015

 

[SBD-3]

PR starts Quetta Zahdan Cargo service. (Geo News)

 

[Devil Soul]

Ministry decides to conduct audit of railway's land across Pakistan
Last Updated On 20 June,2015 About 2 hours ago

The contract will be given to a private audit company.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – The Ministry of Railways has decided to conduct audit of railway’s land across the country, sources told Dunya News on Saturday.

According to an estimate, Pakistan Railway has 167,000 acres of land across the country, however, the figure could reach 200,000 after the audit.

The ministry has also decided to double the Lahore-Khanewal track.

The project will be inaugurated in two months.

 

[kaku1]

Green Line

Engineers from China Railway Signal and Communication Co Ltd test outdoor equipment in Pakistan

Which coaches these are?

 

[Muhammad Omar]

Which coaches these are?

means?

 

[kaku1]

means?

Company. Who manufacturing them. Are theses home developed coaches?

 

[Muhammad Omar]

Company. Who manufacturing them. Are theses home developed coaches?

yes Both Home Developed and Chinese Coaches... same type of coaches are being replaced by every train running here

Green Line Express

 

[ghazi52]

PR agreement: Railways needs $12 billion for ‘complete revamp’

Chinese assistance of $3.69 billion under CPEC will only help in upgrading a certain segment – the Main Line-1 (Karachi-Peshawar). PHOTO: ONLINE

LAHORE:
Restructuring of a cash-strapped Pakistan Railways is not an easy task and cannot be achieved in a matter of a few years, said Minister of Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique during a press conference, adding that an amount of $12 billion would be required to “completely revamp” its infrastructure.

The press conference was held to mark an agreement for the provision of 55 diesel-electric locomotives of 4,000-4,500 horse power from General Electric. The company will start delivering locomotives as ‘complete build units’ within 16 months. Railways expects to recover the cost of around Rs340 million per locomotive within three years.

“Railways needs financial assistance of around $12 billion to completely revamp its dilapidated infrastructure to modern lines,” said Rafique as he mentioned an amount that is a little less than the central bank’s total foreign currency reserves.

He said Chinese assistance of $3.69 billion under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will only help in upgrading a certain segment – the Main Line-1 (Karachi-Peshawar). “However, we are trying to get financial assistance from other countries to upgrade our Main Line-2 (Lahore-Faisalabad-Bahawalpur) and Main Line-3 (Rohri-Quetta) on build-operate-transfer mode,” he added.

“Only after up gradation of the main lines will we be able to look after the branch lines.”

Railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafique oversees the agreement signing with General Electric for 55 locomotives. PHOTO: PID

Talking about the acquisition of 55 locomotives from GE, Rafique explained that, the basic purpose of these locomotives is to transport coal for coal-fired power plants under construction in Punjab.

“Out of the total, some 40 locomotives will be dedicated for coal transportation, 20-22 for Sahiwal coal plant, 10 for Jamshoro coal plant and rest for other plants,” he explained, adding that the rest would be used to increase freight trains fleet which is the backbone of Railways to generate revenue.

“We will also call for a tender for 20 locomotives of 2,000-2,500 horse power out of which 18 will be assembled in our Risalpur factory. That way we will ensure the transfer of technology in Pakistan.”

Though the number of locomotives has started reaching a normal level, but as of today, Pakistan Railways needs 1,000 locomotives to make all its halted train operations functional, he informed further.

Rafique is also hoping to restructure the service structure of Railways’ employees between grad 1-16, as the workers fall in this category are responsible for running the entire operations. “We have hired a few of our senior members as committee members, however, for a transparent service structure tenders will be opened soon,” he said.

Talking about value addition in trains, Rafique said that they are expecting to launch at least three more trains on Green Line train model. “Green Line train is a huge success as we are experiencing 100% occupancy level. Hence, we have decided to offer more trains to facilitate commuters,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2015.