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KARACHI, Aug 7: The Federal Minister for Communication and Railways, Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf on Wednesday directed railway officials to prepare an uplift and renovation plan for the Cantonment Railway Station and to complete the whole process before next October.
During a visit to Cantt Station to inspect recently acquired Chinese-built railway carriages, he observed that Karachi is one of the most important stations of the Pakistan Railways, and its appearance and performance should also match accordingly.
Talking to newsmen after inspecting the railway carriages, he said that Pakistan had signed an agreement with China worth $92 million for acquiring 175 railway carriages of international standard and the transfer of manufacturing technology.
“By the end of Feb 2003, they will provide 40 such carriages, manufactured in China in addition to three years maintenance and provision of spare parts,” he said.
With the help of China under the contract, the Pakistani carriage factory will be able to manufacture railway coaches of the same nature indigenously, and old coaches will be replaced gradually with new ones.
To a query, he informed that a train consisting of Chinese coaches would start operating from Aug 14 on alternate days, and it would be a most comfortable and speedy means of communication between Lahore and Karachi.
“We are planning to have a contract with any multinational food company for the provision of meals and catering in (the) proposed train” he said, adding that the Railways would charge the same fare as of Lower AC train in addition to some extra charges for meals, catering and attendants.
Until the old railway tracks are replaced, inter-city trains would not be plied at their optimum speed he observed, adding that with the present speed of 100-105 kph, the journey between Karachi and Lahore could be covered within 16 hours.
The federal communication minister also expressed the intention to hire the services of reputed contractors for the provision of meals, both during the journey and at the railway stations, saying that the present contractors have specialized in creating problems for commuters.
To another question, he opined that standardization of Pakistan Railways, in terms of its manpower, had been completed two years before, and there are no more plans of retrenchments in it as such.
CARGO SOFTWARE: Pakistan Railways is planning to acquire the modern Advanced Cargo Information System (ACIS) — a computer-based system for tracking the movement of cargo trains.
The system is based on high-powered computer software developed by UNCTAD using computer and telecom equipment.
The ACIS is funded from multi and bilateral sources (European Union, French and German cooperation and the World Bank), and also from national operators.
In this regard, a UNCTAD team, on the invitation of the Ministry of Communications and Railways on Tuesday gave a presentation on the ACIS at the divisional railway headquarters.
The UNCTAD team comprised Coll Hunter, ACIS Programme Manager and S. Stevans, who designed the ACIS system for Pakistan Railways.
The main presentation was on the rail tracker software, which aims at improving the efficiency of railway operations, as well as the quality of service to customers.
A live demonstration over the internet was made on a foreign network showing the cargo whereabouts and movement for a designated customer.
Later, the Divisional Superintendent, Abdul Wahab Awan said that the ACIS offers an opportunity for the exchange of information between various parties involved in different transport modes, and the railways will have the ability to promptly inform the customer on the status and whereabouts of their cargo live, while enroute.
At present, the railways tracks the movement of cargo trains manually.—PPI/APP
