LAHORE, Feb 1: Heads of various Pakistan Railway sections are meeting here on Saturday to review preparations for handling the freight traffic related to Afghanistan reconstruction operations, expected to start by February end or in the first week of March.

The railway authorities expect the operation, carrying goods from Karachi to Chaman and Peshawar, to generate more revenue than its most lucrative passenger routes.

The “brainstorming” session will also discuss the operation’s impact on passenger traffic. There is already a severe shortage of locomotives which will also be required to three new freight trains to Quetta and one to Peshawar. The authorities reportedly plan to overcome the problem by cancelling some passenger trains.

The meeting will assess the additional locomotive requirement for running the freight trains and identify the low-revenue passenger trains to be cancelled.

The officials concerned have been directed to analyse the Rohri based locomotives capable of hauling a load of at least 2,000 gross tonnes for their release for these new trains.

A single Karachi-Quetta freight train is expected to earn at least Rs2.2 million, more than the revenue generated by Karachi Express which runs between Lahore and Karachi given even a 100 percent seat occupancy, PR General Manager Iqbal Samad Khan says. If run on daily basis, the four trains will fetch about Rs3 billion revenue annually to the Railways, which will be the only bonded carrier for transit goods to Afghanistan.

Mr Khan says the organization is in contact with the United Nations agencies like the UNDP and the FAO, and the shipping lines, offering them hauling services up to Afghan border.

In the beginning, there may be need for only one train a day. The demand for wagons and locomotives is, however, likely to pick up in the next three to four months. The railways which had been running 450 passenger trains in the early 70’s is now operating just 226.

Till 1988, the authorities had been replacing engines at an average of 19.5 units per annum. The average then came down to 3.2 units per annum, causing a serious deficit of locomotives and forcing the railway to run only priority passenger trains.