LAHORE - Pakistan Railways (PR) is going to privatize four rail cars between Lahore and Rawalpindi including 101 Up Subakraftar, 102 Down Subakraftar, 103 Up Subakhuram and 104 Down Subakkhuram. A senior officer of railways said that the department had made a set of four trains and also had invited interested parties for biddings in this regard.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Railways has already privatized two trains including Business Express and Shalimar Express within last four months. Operation of Shalimar Express was closed due to unknown reasons and was restored and privatized. The unions of Railways Employees opposed the privatization and said that the decision was made just to oblige a few.
The railways spokesman said that the application forms were available against a payment of Rs30,000 but the administration would prefer bids from the parties with strong technical and commercial background. “Railways will also announce the bidding of six Up and Down side trains for privatization in next phase, including Fareed Express (Lahore-Karachi via Kasur-Pakpattan), Shaheen Express (Sialkot-Karachi via Faisalabad) and Super Express (Malakwal-Karachi via Faisalabad) after privatization of Rawalpindi rail cars” sources quoted. It was decided that railways would fix the benchmark of 80 percent occupancy for rail cars and no bid would be acceptable for below this potential, sources said.  It was stated that railways was offering bidding dates for these trains third time. Earlier, railways had fixed February 15, as last date to submit the bids but over the demand of interested parties the date was extended till March 2.
 So far no party has submitted a bid. According to a railways official, the operation of 101Up and 102 Down Subakraftar has been suspended for five months due to shortage of locomotives and fuel.
Meanwhile an executive committee meeting was held here on Saturday at railways headquarter chaired by Arif Azeem, while finance member Idrees Tarar, Maintenance and Services GM Naeem Malik and Operation GM Junaid Qureshi were present on the occasion. The participants reviewed the agreement clauses signed between railways, Royal Palm Golf and Country Club.