LAHORE -  Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique has said the freight sector is earning well for the Railways due to hard work and commitment of the present team.

He was talking to officers in a meeting held at Railways Headquarters here on Saturday to brief the minister about utilization plan of new 4000-4500 horsepower American locomotives.

The minister said four years back, only seven locomotives were used for freight traffic and today 95 locomotives had been dedicated to the freight sector whereas by September 2017, the number of freight locomotives would be 135 in total which was unprecedented in history of the Pakistan Railways.

"We started when one freight train was used to run after two days but today freight traffic has increased to 13-14 trains per day and this per day average of freight traffic is bound to grow by September this year after receiving all 55 GE locomotives from the USA," he said.

"New locomotives will be dedicated to oil and coal supply," he added.

He directed officers to run new goods trains as currently one goods train is running from Badami Bagh Lahore to Karachi.

He added freight train should be operated from Faisalabad and Multan to facilitate businessmen of these areas.

The minister said the PR always had good clients and freight orders but previously it was unable to accommodate

its customers due to aged locomotives. The minister said GE locomotives had injected new life into the freight sector and now officials were well equipped to run freight traffic at full capacity.

He said the Railways was transporting coal, oil, cement, building material, seed, agricultural machinery, heavy machinery and miscellaneous products which was helping in achievement of its revenue targets and set new records in freight earnings.