Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday said that initially, Pakistan Railways will fill as many as 2000 vacant posts of different cadres purely on merit.

Talking to media, after meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Railways, the minister said that around 10,000 job opportunities will be given in Pakistan Railways to the people on merit.

Sheikh Rashid said in first phase, the government had granted permission to the Ministry of Railways to fill the 2031 vacant posts.

To a query, the minister said that private partners would be asked to come forward and take over the Golra Railway Station to convert it into a food street and picnic spot.

He said both the Main Line-I and Main Line-II were important for the country. ML-I had been kept under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) while in order to upgrade ML-II, the private sector would be invited to invest on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis.

Sheikh Rashid said the project of E-Ticketing which was started 12-years ago by Pakistan Railways is now earning around 10 million per day.