LAHORE, Nov 28: A three-member delegation of the Pakistan Railways will be leaving for New Delhi on Dec 3, it is learnt. Sources said on Monday during the four-day tour, the PR team would finalize modalities for resuming the Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link.
Headed by general manager (operations) Saleemur Rahman Akhoond, the delegation comprises Karachi divisional superintendent Junaid Qureshi and Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link upgradation plan project director Ghulam Rasool Memon.
“The replacement of 135 kilometres meter gauge track with broad gauge from Mirpurkhas to Zero Line (border), which is some eight kms from Khokhrapar, is in final stages,” sources said.
A decision to resume the rail link, severed during the September 1965 war, was taken during the visit of President Pervez Musharraf to India.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed the railways authorities to complete the project by year end by extending the line for another 10 kilometres up to Monabao in Rajasthan to reestablish a second India-Pakistan train service.
The resumption of the Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link would minimize the journey between India and Pakistan to five hours. At present, people have to travel through Lahore.
SAMJHOTA: The Samjhota Express started running between Lahore and Atari twice a week from Monday.
Pakistan Railway officials said on Monday and Thursday every week, the 402-down would leave Lahore at 8am and reach Wagah border on 8.35am. It would leave Wagah on 11:30am and arrive Atari on 11:40am.
Similarly, the 401-up would leave Atari on 2pm and reach Wagah on 2:10pm, leave Wagah at 4:10pm and reach the Lahore station at 4:45pm the same day.
The Samjhota Express resumed its operation after a break of two years on Jan 15 last year. It had stopped running on Dec 31, 2001, when New Delhi unilaterally severed its ties with Islamabad and cut off all air, road and rail links after an attack on its parliament, holding ‘Pakistan-based’ militants responsible for the incident.
India deployed its forces on Pakistan borders but had to withdraw after around one-and-a-half years. The changing world scenario forced the two Asian neighbours to make peace and open people-to-people links.
The Dosti (friendship) bus service resumed its operation in July 2003, while air link was restored on Jan 2 last year.
The frequency of the train operation has been enhanced keeping in view the increase in number of passengers in the light of a five-year agreement signed between Pakistan and Indian railway authorities in the third week of December 2003.
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