LAHORE, Sept 23: A conference of the eight divisional superintendents of the Pakistan Railways was held here on Tuesday to discuss among other issues the working of the vigilance cell.

The cell had been introduced by former railways minister Javed Ashraf Qazi to check corruption among employees, ticketless travelling and monitor performance of various departments.

Sources said a majority of the meeting participants were against the cell which, they said, had hindered their performance due to “uncalled for inspections.”

However, the meeting deferred a final decision on the subject to a later stage.

Railways Minister Ghaus Bakhsh Mehr, who also attended the meeting, urged the need for increasing revenue generation, especially through goods hauling, and checking ticketless travelling.

He expressed his concern over the decline in transportation business of the railway and urged the commercial and marketing departments to look out for new avenues for meeting this shortfall in revenue.

The minister was told that to improve earnings through goods hauling, the marketing department had been activated and talks with big enterprises were being held for offering them special packages in transporting their merchandise.

New installations were being erected in Lahore and Faisalabad while efforts were also on to make Gujranwala and Faisalabad as hauling centres.