LAHORE: Pakistan Railways’ authorities seem desperate to make newly-launched Parcel Express a success – first they lowered rates and now have decided to even ignore rules pertaining to booking of goods in the books of the organization.

Comprising 13 luggage and one guard-cum-brake vans, the train had left Lahore with 21,035 kilo load on its inaugural day on Feb 10 and reached Karachi the following night.

“A luggage van has a capacity of 10 tons. Some 11 vans were empty when the Parcel Express left Lahore on its maiden trip to Karachi,” said an official of railways commercial wing on Friday.

Unchecked loading may invite troubles

From the Sindh capital, the train got 74,575 kilos for Lahore on Feb 12. Keeping in view the poor response by private cargo firms, the administration decided to reduce per kilo freight charges from Rs9.30 to Rs7.50 (from Lahore to Karachi) for a period of one month and allowed loading and unloading of cargo at Hyderabad the following day.

However, its second trip from the Punjab capital on Feb 14 had to be cancelled for want of cargo.

“Private cargo companies did not book any luggage on Sunday (Feb 14) because of closure of all commercial centres, markets and business concerns in Lahore so we had to delay departure of the train for a day,” said the official.

The train left the Punjab capital on Feb 15 with 15,381 kilos booked from Lahore, 30,620 kilo from Faisalabad, fetching Rs115,400 and Rs216,310, respectively, for railways.

Meanwhile, Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique took a serious view of the empty vans of the Parcel Express running between Punjab and Sindh capitals.

“Fearing the minister wrath, the authorities decided to offer private firms to get a full luggage van booked on payment of lump sum amount of Rs75,000 in advance and load at will and without any checking.

They are desperate to get all the luggage vans booked by Saturday (Feb 20) when the minister is likely to formally inaugurate the operation of the train,” said the official.

Terming the move ‘unwise and dangerous’, the official said it was tantamount to inviting troubles.

“Giving contractors a free hand will lead to overloading or uneven loading of the vans which may result in derailment of the train. There is likelihood of transportation of contraband items like illegal weapons and drugs once there is no checking by the railway staff,” said the official.

Waiving off the checking clause would also deprive railways of considerable income.

According to Rule 7.15 of railways commercial manual, the parcel or luggage goods would either be charged by weight or by measurement whichever gives the greater charge i.e 28 cubic decimeters will be considered equal to 4 kilo in weight.

“Electrical goods have separate rate list. These should be charged at double the normal rate but not now, depriving railways of considerable income,” said the official.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2016