OKARA: Around 2,000 daily commuters traveling by 1-UP and 2-DN Khyber Mail from the Model City Railway Station (MCRS) are going to be deprived of this facility from Oct 10 because of the railway authorities’ decision to abolish the train stoppage.

The Pakistan Railway (PR), Lahore, divisional superintendent (DS) announced the end of the Khyber Mail stoppage at MCRS from Oct 10, through letter No 701-T 1413-V11(TT), issued on Nov 1.

As per the letter, the train will now have the only stoppage at the Okara Cantonment station.

As per Pakistan Railway (PR) sources, due to the MCRS Khyber Mail stoppage, the PR is earning around Rs15 million per month in revenue.

Local industry and agriculturists want the decision revoked

They say that abolishing of the Khyber Mail stoppage at MCRS will affect more than one million people residing in the train’s feeding area, who will have no direct train to Karachi for 16 hours.

Moreover, the local agriculturists and owners of the industrial unit involved in processing of produces like rice, besides poultry farmers, have also opposed the railway authorities arbitrary decision to end the train stoppage.

They say that Okara city and its rural areas, being a hub of agriculture and its related industry like rice sheller units, will also be hit by the decision, besides producers of crops like maize and potato.

They argue that traders of different agricultural produces use Khyber Mail to travel to and from the city, which fuels the areas’ economy, that would also be hit by the PR decision.

After abolishing of the train stoppage, the area residents will be left with only five trains, none of them directly for Karachi.

The sources say that Khyber Mail has also a postal service compartment that would bring mail to the city and its surrounding areas, generating revenue for the railways. They say that the decision to end stoppage would also affect this service and reduce the revenue.

Okara Cantonment Railway Station was established in 1974 and Khyber Mail stoppage had been facilitating the people up to 2007. In 2007, the stoppage of Khyber Mail at the Cantonment Railway Station was cancelled and since then the train has the only stop at the MCRS.

The affected segments say that the PR authorities can run the both stoppages simultaneously as it had been till 2007.

They have appealed to Federal Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi and PML-N MNA Chaudhry Riazul Haq Juj to take notice of the situation and get the decision revoked.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2025