Islamabad:
The Federal Minister of Railway Hanif Abbasi said that significant efforts were underway to modernize Pakistani railways with an improvement in the tracks and digitization of various processes.
During an informal interaction with journalists on Thursday, he said that no major investment had been made in the railways in the past eight years, but that the situation had changed.
He said the railroad ticket office had already been scanned, with passengers capable of buying tickets via 16 banks as well as Easypaisa and Ufone Bank.
He said that ticket auditors will also be equipped with portable machines to slow down the escape of prices, which currently causes losses of around 1 billion rupees per year.
“The ministry of railways has been converted into an electronic office, with digital operations inspection plans. We will generate income thanks to freight operations and use it to subsidize passenger services,” he added.
Describing infrastructure projects, Abbasi said that a 480 -kilometer piece from Rohri in Karachi was planned, the officials of the Asian bank (BAD) who should extend cooperation.
He said the Ministry also joined the Sindh government on the Rohri-Sukkur track, and with the Balutchistan government for work between Sheikh Zayed and Kuchlak.
“The government of Punjab, on the other hand, will build the track of Lahore – Rawalpindi and will install Wi -Fi for free in 40 stations.
Abbasi said that work was underway on the remaining parties of ML-1, while the development of ML-3 from Nokundi to Rohri would also begin.
He added that 11 trains would be outsourced, with auction to start at 3.07 billion rupees.
On international connectivity, Abbasi revealed that a project was planned to connect Kohat, Kharlachi and Mazar-I-Sharif with Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan allocating $ 5 million each for feasibility studies.
In addition, Abbasi said that Pakistan Reiny and Liver Institute (PKLI) in Lahore would begin renal transplants from October this year.
