KARACHI: A large number of upcountry residents left the city by two Eid special trains on Saturday to celebrate the festival in their hometowns.

The first train with 12 carriages left the city in the morning for Peshawar while the second train left for Rawalpindi in the evening.

Two more special trains will leave the metropolis on Sunday. The first one will leave in the morning for Lahore while the second one will leave for Quetta in the afternoon.

Besides these four special trains, Pakistan Railways is also operating seven other special trains between different towns, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Quetta, etc, to facilitate travel of home-bound passengers.

This year the railways has also offered a discount of 30 per cent to people travelling on Eid day and on the second day of Eid.

The discount is on the tickets purchased on that particular day and not on the tickets purchased in advance.

Keeping in view the growing number of passengers, Railways Workers Union chief Manzoor Razi has called for more coaches attached to the special trains so that passengers can travel comfortably and the railways income can also be increased.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014