LAHORE, July 17: Operation of all 20 trains from Lahore to Okara, Jaranwala, Shorkot, Wazirabad, Narowal, Faisalabad and Sialkot will be resumed within a couple of days.

The trains were suspended in the wake of burning of four coaches of Babu Passenger train at Kamoke during a violent protest against the power loadshedding last month, Railways General Manager (Operations) Junaid Qureshi said on Tuesday.

“The federal government has released the Rs6 billion allocated funds and the public-private partnership has started yielding results. We have placed orders for the rehabilitation of 27 locomotives. Talks are under way with railways of other countries to get another 50 locomotives on lease,” said Mr Qureshi.

He said the availability of locomotives would be instrumental in getting the railways back on rails. “We will resume operation of all passenger and freight trains on its network all over the country and once again make the Pakistan Railways a profitable entity,” he said while expressing the optimism that by June 2014, some 150 new locomotives would be added to the PR fleet.

The railways authorities had on June 18 suspended all local trains in its Lahore Division after burning of Babu Passenger train’s coaches but a formal decision to ensure the safety of passengers and cargo was announced the following day.

The suspended trains were Okara Passenger (223-Up/224-Down), Ravi Express (121-Up/122-Down), Ghauri Express (113-Up/114-Down), Faisal Express (177-Up/178-Down), Tipu Sultan Express (141-Up/142-Down), Badar Express (111-Up/112-Down), Babu Passenger (205-Up/206-Down) and Lasani Express (125-Up/126-Down) besides Shah Sarwar Passenger (217-Up/218-Down) and Mouj Darya Passenger (215-Up/216-Down).