LAHORE, Dec 3: The replacement of the meter gauge track with broad gauge on the Khokhrapar-Monabao section has been completed, it is learnt. A three-member delegation of the Pakistan Railways will now be leaving for New Delhi on Dec 11 to finalize modalities of resuming the Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link, sources said on Saturday.
An officer working on this rail link’s upgradation plan said: “At present, fitting of the 135-km track is in full swing and likely to be completed within a week or so. In the last week of this month, we’ll be conducting trial of the new track by running a train on it.
“There are 135 bridges on the section, and work on 85 of them, including six main bridges, is in final stages. The construction of 32 box culvert and 54 hume pipe bridges is also near completion,” he said.
The officer was optimistic the new track would be opened to the traffic ahead of the schedule.
Work was simultaneously started from the both ends of the track, Khokhrapar and Mirpurkhas, in mid-May this year, he said.
From Mirpurkhas to Jamaro, some 8.64 km-long track would remain both meter and broad gauge so that meter-gauge trains continue to carry passengers and goods to Pithoro via Jhudo and back, he said.
The sources said the three-member PR team could not fly to New Delhi on Saturday for some ‘unavoidable reasons’.
During its four-day tour, now starting from Dec 11, the PR team would finalize the name and schedule of the train, besides other matters, which would run on the Khokhrapar-Monabao section.
Headed by railways General Manager (Operations) Saleemur Rahman Akhoond, the delegation comprises Karachi Divisional Superintendent Junaid Qureshi and Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link upgradation plan project director Ghulam Rasool Memon.
The government had approved the project to replace the 135 kms-long meter gauge track with broad gauge from Mirpurkhas to Zero Line (border), which is some 8kms from Khokhrapar.
A decision to resume the rail link, severed during the September 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, was taken during the visit of President Pervez Musharraf to India.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed the railways authorities to complete the project by year end by extending the line for another 10 kilometres up to Monabao in Rajasthan to re-establish a second Indo-Pakistan train service.
The resumption of the Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link will minimize the journey between India and Pakistan to five hours. At present, people have to travel through Lahore.