RAWALPINDI, Dec 17: Working to woo back its passengers, the Pakistan Railways has decided to re-start its Rawalpindi-Multan Meher Express from December 23.

“The Meher Express will be inaugurated at the Rawalpindi station by the passenger who will buy the first ticket,” said Divisional Superintendent Syed Munawar Shah while talking to Dawn here on Saturday.

He said the railways would not provide the first ticket to its employees or their relatives in order to avoid any favouritism.

“We will provide free tickets to two males, two females and two children for Multan, Fatehjang, Bakhar and other stops from Rawalpindi on December 23,” he said.

He said the Meher Express would leave Rawalpindi at 5pm and reach Multan at 5pm after touching areas like Fatehjang, Basal, Layyah and Bhakkar. Similarly, the train from Multan will arrive here at the same time.

The service was suspended last year due to unavailability of locomotives. According to railway record, this train service was the most successful in the past.

He said railway passengers had been facing problems in the recent past due to weak financial condition of the organisation. However, after the Rs6 billion bailout package, the railways, he added, was limping back to its normal service and the situation would improve in the coming days.

The railways is also planning to launch new service from Kundian to Sarghodha next month. Two trains are operating from Sargodha to Lala Musa; however, there is no service from Sargodha to Kundian.The official said total 12 locomotives would be repaired within 10 days at the central diesel locomotive workshop in Rawalpindi and would be rolled out next month.

Last month, 16 locomotives were repaired but three of them went out of order again. He said after repairing the locomotives, the PR would also start its freight service.