KARACHI: The Pakistan Railways has announced a shuttle service between Karachi and Dhabeji from Nov 1 to facilitate thousands of workers and industrial labourers who are enduring costly travel to reach their workplace every day.

In a video statement on Friday, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called it a “gift” from the Imran Khan-led government and promised to provide more railways-related incentives for Karachiites and people of other parts of Sindh.

“President Arif Alvi will inaugurate this [shuttle] service on Oct 31 at the City Station and it will formally start operation from Nov 1,” he said. “Prime Minister Imran Khan has fulfilled his promise for labourers of Karachi to launch a train service, which will run between Karachi and Dhabeji. The key objective of this service is to facilitate the labourers and overcome transport woes of Karachi.”

Later, a PR statement said that the service — Karachi-Dhabeji Express — would leave the City Station at 7am every morning and reach Dhabeji station at 8.55am after making stops at Drigh Road, Malir and Bin Qasim stations.

“Similarly, the DK Express would leave Dhabeji station at 5pm every evening to reach the city station at 6.55pm after making stops at Drigh Road, Malir and Bin Qasim stations. The shuttle service would have seven economy class coaches, a power van and a break van,” the statement added.

The Railways minister said that a shuttle train between Karachi and Hyderabad would also be launched.

The new express train would be the sixth new service launched in 60 days, he said.

“We have set a target to provide 10 trains and 15 freight trains within 100 days and we strongly believe [we will] achieve [this]. Some 10,000 unemployed individuals would also be offered jobs on the basis of merit. We hope to bring out the Pakistan Railways of the deficit within a year,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 27th , 2018

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