RAWALPINDI - Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan would inaugurate Sir Syed Express at 4pm during a ceremony to be held at Rawalpindi Railway Station today (Wednesday).
The deficit of Rs4 billion of Pakistan Railwyas has also been decreased, said Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed at a presser here on Tuesday.
He was flanked by MNA Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Divisional Superintendent, Rawalpindi and other senior officers.
Addressing media, Sheikh Rashid said that so far 24 new trains had been put on tracks by him whereas one more new train would be included in the fleet that would be inaugurated by PM Imran Khan. He said that he would steer the Railways out of deficit, adding Railways earned Rs54 billion in last 9 months. At present, 60 million passengers travelled through railways across the country whereas the number of passengers will be increased up to 100 million by the end of 2019,” he said. He said that Railways had purchased oil worth Rs4 billion to move on trains.
He hinted out that the salaries of Railways employees would also be increased up to 10 percent. “I am promising with nation that the deficit of Railways will be deceased in 5 years,” the federal minister said.
He said that the government had decided to shift Railways Headquarters from Lahore to Karachi. He said that the government had also finalised PC1 of ML1 and Nullah Leh would also be included in this mega project.
Sheikh Rashid was of view that poor and middle class families used to travel on rails and government would make all out efforts to facilitate them. He said that Railways had increased fare from 2 to 8 per cent but could not earn revenue.