LAHORE: Pakistan Railways has decided to close down the operations of its 12 express trains from Sunday (Mar 22) and enhance the stops of its express trains to avoid congestion at main railway stations of big cities, said Minister for Railways Shaikh Rashid Ahmed.
Talking to media, he said the operations of a total of 34 trains would be closed by April 1 as a precautionary measure to avoid spread of global pandemic. However the decision about closing down the operations remaining trains would be taken on a special meeting scheduled on March 25.
A sum of Rs 80 million was being refunded to passengers of the closed trains. However they can travel to other trains of their choice in the same booking of the closed trains.
He said Pakistan Railways operates 134 trains daily across the country. With the closure of 34 trains, 100 trains would continue operating daily as Pakistan Railways has no alternate resources to pay salaries and pensions of its retired employees. The operation of 12 to 15 freight trains daily will continue.
He said to minimize congestion, the stops of trains are being increased to avoid rush at main railways stations of big cities. As many as 70 million passengers travel through Railways annually and 200,000 passengers daily. The number of passengers has been decreased to 160,000 due to coronavirus fears.
He said proper cleanliness of Railways stations were being ensured. Scanning of passengers was also being ensured to avoid deadly virus infections.
He said Pakistan Railways wanted to transfer pension payment obligations to federal government for ending its woes on permanent basis. This would help ending deficit of Pakistan Railways.
He said ML-1 project was the backbone of Pakistan Railways. The project would be finalized on the forthcoming visit of Chinese President to Pakistan.
He offered handing over the services of 48 Railways hospitals, dispensaries to all provincial governments to fight coronavirus.
Responding to a question, he said there should not be any lock down in the country and PR will pay the salaries and pension of its staff as per schedule. PR has reduced deficit by Rs 4 billion last year.
To another question, he said he has not yet stopped listening public complaints in Lal Haveli, Rawalpindi on each Monday and Friday and he will continue mitigating sufferings of the people and maintaining close contact with them despite coronavirus fears.
