LAHORE – The Pakistan railways inaugurated a dry port on Friday and announced that it was a ‘good omen’ that a 60-container-train had reached the dry port of Prem Nagar because this was the first private sector container-train.
The PR in with collaboration with two private companies has made a landmark by creating the dry port of Prem Nagar, said PR Chairman Shahid Hussain Raja. He made these statements after the inauguration of the dry port. He said that there were few railways in the world which collected profits, and that freight trains were extremely important for making profits.
If the railway has even one freight train driving from Karachi every day, there will be an estimated profit of at least Rs1 billion annually. He said that initially there will only be two trains that will travel in a week, while afterwards this number will be increased and a train will be expected to reach the dry port every day. Railways will have a huge profit and will not be in the same condition as they used to be.
Raja also said that the railways needed more engines.
“After the cabinet gives us our package of Rs 11.1 billion, engines will be our first priority,” he said adding, “These engines will be used for freight mostly.” He also specified that the railways have come up with a ‘track excess’ policy which allowed renting out the tracks to private freight trains. The tracks are expected to be laid out across an area of 140 acres for a lease of 35 years.
PR has collaborated with Premier Mercantile Services and Qasim International Container Terminal for this project. At the occasion the General Manager Operations Ishtiaq Khattak and Project Director Dry Port Sheikh Sardar Ahmed were also present.
QICT
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