PESHAWAR, May 25: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said a new non-stop Peshawar-Rawalpindi train will start its service from July 1.

Briefing journalists about some service-oriented reforms in the railway department at the office of the railways divisional superintendent here on Thursday, he said a train from Peshawar to Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan would be launched soon so that the people of southern district could benefit out of an inexpensive mean of communication.

He said all encroachment on railway lands would be removed and the land would be auctioned to the private sector on commercial terms.

He said the provinces would be given a share of 40 per cent of the total deal.

The minister said that a handsome raise in railway employees’ salaries would be given from next month.

He said a healthy competition between the private and public sectors would offer a comfortable train service to commuters.

He said that after 1988 the locomotive factory, Risalpur, had not manufactured a single railway engine. “But we have decided streamlining all our resources and manufacturing two engines within a month’s time.’’