LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) has started working on a proposal for laying the country’s first standard gauge rail track from Quetta to Taftan in a bid to make infrastructure compatible with international standards and to transport high-value goods to European and Central Asian countries within the shortest period.
A sum of USD500m is expected to be incurred on the 635km long track and the PR is likely to get a feasibility carried out in the near future, subject to approval of the proposal by the Ministry of Railways.
The department may request Iran to also lay 95km long standard gauge rail track from Taftan (Pakistan) to Zahedan (Iran) once it decides to lay the same rail track within its territory (Quetta to Taftan), Dawn has learnt.
Move to enable transshipment of Istanbul train goods at Quetta instead of Zahedan
“We have broad gauge, which is compatible with the rail system in India, Bangladesh and some other countries. But it is not compatible with the system of Iran, Turkey, Europe and Central Asia based on the standard gauge rail. That’s why we have started considering a proposal to better go for the standard gauge rail to ease connectivity and mobility and make our rail infrastructure compatible with the international standards (standard gauge),” a senior PR official explained told Dawn.
It may be mentioned that the standard gauge rail (SGR) consists of four feet and 8.5 inches width. It is also called international, uniformed, normal Stephenson as well as the European gauge. It is also the most widely used rail gauge across the world. However, the broad gauge rail track being used in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Chile and the Bay Area of San Francisco (USA) is reportedly 5.6 feet wide.
The need to lay standard gauge from Quetta to Taftan arose after the railways authorities learnt that recently launched/resumed Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) freight train takes almost four to five days from Quetta to Zahedan (635km from Quetta to Taftan and 95kmn from Taftan to Zahedan) due to weak condition of the rail track (Quetta to Taftan). Due to this issue, the freight train loaded with the goods packed in containers etc go up to Zahedan only where these goods are transshipped to other wagons compatible to run on the standard gauge from Zahedan to Istanbul, Ankara and rest of Europe.
“If we lay the standard gauge from Quetta to Taftan on our own or in collaboration with any international funding agency and onward to Zahedan through Iran, we will also be able to complete the transshipping of the goods at Quetta instead of Zahedan,” the official maintained.
“Moreover, the travel time would also reduce massively from 4/5 days to just 20 hours or so. In general, the travel time to Turkey from Pakistan would also reduce drastically,” he said, adding that the same standard gauge track could also be used for compatible rolling stock, including the passenger coaches as being used in Europe.
The official said the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul train type facility could also be launched for Azerbaijan and other Central Asian countries via Iran.
Meanwhile, another official of the railways confirmed that the third ITI freight train reached Istanbul a couple of days before.
“At present, the loading of goods at the 4th ITI train is under way. It will also depart for Turkey soon,” he added.
Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2022
