ISLAMABAD: Minis­ter for Railways Hanif Abbasi on Thursday announced that nine passenger trains of Pakistan Railways will be outsourced soon.

Mr Abbasi announced this after having been briefed on it by officials of Pakistan Railways at a meeting in Islamabad on Thursday.

The minister was informed that Pakistan Railways is moving forward with its plan of outsourcing of passen-ger trains with the ob-jective of further im-proving services for passengers and the government move is expected to bring an annual income of Rs5 billion to Pakistan Railways.

The minister said that the trains to be outsourced at a transparent and open auction soon are Hazara Express, Awam Express, Karachi Express, Millat Express, Fareed Express, Sukkur Express, ‘Kora­korum Express, Baha­uddin Zakriya Express, Ravi Express, Thal Exp­ress and Faiz Ahmed Faiz Express.

Mr Abbasi asked railway officials to carry out a plan to modernise the Awam Express train, making it premium express train.

Under the plan, Awam Express will be added 40 new passenger coaches.

He said that passengers will be provided free wi-fi connectivity, standard quality food and a clean environment in the Awam Express train and it will be formally inaugurated shortly.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2026

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