First door to door freight train services launched in Karachi

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Governor of Sindh, Mr. Imran Ismail, Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways, Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed, and Mr. Haleem Adil Sheikh, General Secretary PTI Sindh, Parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly, have inaugurated the Pakistan Railway Door to Door Transport Services at Cantt Station today.

The first scheduled freight train under Public Private Partnership (PPP) laden with more than fifty containers has left for Lahore. The freight train services have been launched following the agreement between Pakistan Railways Freight Transport Company (PRFTC) and Premier Mercantile Services (PMS), Karachi.

As per the understanding between parties, the private sector will provide cargo while trains and operation services would be provided by the Pakistan Railways. The private sector will also provide door to door supply of cargo from the selected railway stations including loading and unloading services.

Mr. Aasim A. Siddiqui, Managing Director of Marine Group of Companies, Mr. Zafar Zaman Ranjha, CEO of PRFTC; Shariq A Siddiqi and other top officials of railway made the event more colour full.

Mr. Zafar Zaman Ranjha, CEO of PRFTC in his welcome speech said that the second train will be added on January 25, 2019 while by March 2019 four trains would be included in the fleet to strengthen cargo operations through railways. We will pay about Rs 2.4 million per train to Pakistan Railway and this amount will bound to incase in years to come.

Mr. Aasim A. Siddiqui, Managing Director of Marine Group of Companies has said that this freight train services will ease cost of doing business and reduce time for transportation of cargoes in country.

The operation will also help authorities to reduce congestion in the port city from where the containers and other cargo is transported to other parts of the country mainly through trucks.

He added that with the start of this freight cargo trains service the cost of transportation of containers would decline by 15 to 20 percent as compared to the transportation of cargo via roads. “The train will reach Lahore dry port, located in Prem Nagar, within 48 hours as compared to a truck that takes around 72 hours,” he remarked.

Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways, Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed said that Pakistan Railways is incurring huge losses and efforts are being made to make it profitable.

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