KHOKHRAPAR, Feb 25: To felicitate a train service between Khokhrapar and Munabao (India), the railways authorities are considering two options for rehabilitation of the existing Mirpurkhas-Khokhrapar rail track.

This was stated by the secretary of railways, Shakeel Durrani, while talking to this correspondent on Thursday at the Khokhrapar railway station. He had come here to inspect arrangements to reopen the rail route between Pakistan and India.

He said that under the first option, a broad gauge rail track would be laid between Mirpurkhas and Khokhrapar in around two years and Rs1.8 billion had been estimated as its initial cost.

In the second option, he said the existing track would be widened with broad sleepers at a cost of Rs621 million and the work could be completed in less time. The railway secretary said that work on the route would begin following a go-ahead from the federal government.

He said that the Pakistan Railways was taking up the matter of defects in nine locomotives purchased from China, causing a loss of Rs810 million. He added that any loss or damage was fully covered under the agreement signed with the contractor who had supplied locomotives.

As part of the Rs11 billion rail tracks' rehabilitation programme, he said, track from Karachi to Rawalpindi would be taken care of and repair would be undertaken wherever needed.

He said that sleepers of tracks would be checked and, if needed, replaced so that trains could ply at a speed of 140km per hour. He said that a feasibility report of the Chaman-Spin Boldak track was ready whereas another feasibility report for a rail track between Spin Boldak and Kandahar in Afghanistan would be prepared.