It is a well-known fact that the Pakistani railway system desperately needs some improvement and while there has been some improvement in the recent years there is a lot of room for improvement still. So the news that the Minister for Railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, has decided to take some steps to help revive the system which are most welcome.
This week in a meeting of the State Standing Committee on Railways, the Minister stated that Pakistan Railway will provide Wi-Fi and an online tracking system facility for all the passengers to track their trains. He also that within a 100 day period of time these improvements will also be introduced for freight trains. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the Minister of Railway, attributed the credit for these facilities to an Overseas Pakistan who is offering free of cost services for providing Wi-Fi and tracking facilities in passenger trains, according to one source. He assured the committee that the tracking systems will be installed shortly in all the trains. On the same topic, it should be noted that Asad Khan Junejo suggested that mobile phones can be provided to train drivers with software which can help in tracking the trains to the drivers of the trains.
There was also talk about upgrading the economy passenger trains to have air conditioning at the cost of slightly higher fares by the next summer. On the topic of fares, it was also mentioned by the minister that the Pakistan Railway will be offering free tickets to passengers over the age of 75, 50% discount to those who are over 65 years, and a 25% discount for all disabled passengers.
The minister also mentioned that the number of freight trains will be increased from 10-12 to 13 per day and after a period of 90 days these freight trains can be run by private enterprises as a part of public-private partnership to increase their revenues.
Mr. Ahmed also said “I will accompany PM Khan during his visit to China where along with the finalization of ML-I for implementation, we will ask China to include the up-gradation of ML-II as well in the CPEC framework.” He also added that these decisions regarding the plans to upgrade the railways will be made in the next 60 days and that he intends to make traveling by the railway system a much more pleasant experience for the passengers than before.
