Railways plans to upgrade, renovate another 30 railway stations

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Railways was planning to upgrade and renovate another 30 railway stations situated across the country aiming to improve the outlook and modernize passengers amenities.
In this regard, Pakistan Railways had already submitted PC-I for upgradation and renovation of railway stations,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.
Giving detail, he said that a project of rehabilitation of stations has been initiated under which 18 railway stations are being upgraded under various Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
He said the names of railways stations being upgraded are included Karachi Cantt, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Bhawalpur, Raiwind, Gujranwala, Narowal, Nakana Sahib, Hasan Abdal, Khanewal, Okara, Sibi, Harnai and Kohat.
Out of them, the official said that Okara, Narowal, Sahiwal and Yusufwala railway stations were inaugurated by the former Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique.
He said that an amount of Rs 210.8 million had been spent on the construction of Sahiwal railway station, Rs 104 million on Yusufwala and Rs 359.8 million had been spent on the construction of Narowal railway station.
Regarding the Raiwind railway station, he said that it is being constructed by the National Logistic Cell (NLC) which started the work in 2016 and about 85 per cent work has been completed.
The official said that Pakistan Railways will spend Rs 977.32 million for upgradation of railway stations in Punjab, Rs 1,242.93 million in Sindh, Rs 442.71 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Rs 243.49 million in Balochistan and Rs 66.5 million in the federal capital.
Railways renovates around 100 bridges: Pakistan Railways has repaired and renovated around 100 railway bridges during the last five years designed in such a way to meet modern standard and ensure safety of passengers across the country.
“Pakistan Railways is inspecting the bridges on daily basis and making efforts to rehabilitate the remaining poor condition bridges as soon as possible,” official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.
The Railways administration desired to provide quick and safe journey to public within shortest possible time, the official added.
“There are 13,841 bridges including 532 major and 13,309 minor bridges over the system. Most of the bridges were constructed well before partition, when Railway System was introduced in the subcontinent and have completed their life,” he said.
To a question, he said that owing to dedicated inspections and regular maintenance, bridges were generally in satisfactory condition for safe train operation.
He said the rehabilitation of bridges would ensure safety standards, remove speed restrictions imposed on weak bridges, ensure effective maintenance in reducing the operational cost and meet the increased requirements of freight and passengers.