LARKANA, July 19: The Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged railways authorities to introduce a special return ticket package for the passengers of Qalandar Express running between Larkana and Karachi and reschedule its departure time from 9 pm to 11 pm.

Talking to ‘Dawn’ on Saturday, Hafiz Suleman Shaikh, president of LCCI, said that the railways had given similar facilities to the commuters of a number of other trains.

He called for restarting a passenger train between Larkana and Kotri for the commuters of small stations. The railways authorities had discontinued the service without any cogent reason, shrinking travelling facilities for the people of small villages.

He stressed the need for repairing and updating railway track between Larkana and Karachi so as to save journey time. A train 219 Up and 220 Down Dodu-Rohri should be restarted and lower air conditioned bogies should be added to 19 Up, 20 Down Khushhal Khan Khattak Express, he suggested.

Mr Shaikh said Larkana railway station that had been burnt down in the post-Dec 27 violence should be repaired and equipped with computerised ticketing system.

He said that the LCCI members had held a meeting with Larkana DCO Abdul Aziz Uqaili and apprised him of the pressing needs of people. He told the DCO that the existing facilities in the city were not at par with its increased population load, he said and urged early completion of Larkana circular road to reduce mounting pressure of traffic in the city.

He urged him to provide all the union councils fire brigade vehicles called for starting daily PIA flights to and from Moenjodaro airport. The work on construction of bridge over the Indus River connecting Larkana-Khairpur Mir’s districts should be completed in time and work should be started on the Engineering College.

He said the early completion of Larkana-Sehwan Indus Highway road was need of the hour and urged the DCO to shift vegetable market outside the city and select an appropriate site for establishing small industrial estate phase-II.

The DCO assured the LCCI members of contacting the departments concerned and ask them to complete work on development schemes in time.