PESHAWAR, Feb 19: The Pakistan Railways has announced that it would operate special train once a week from Peshawar to transport export goods to Karachi in addition to undertaking measures to bring about improvements at the Peshawar dry port.
An announcement to this effect was made by Mr Mehmood Rashid, Managing Director of the Pakistan Railways' Dry Ports Organization, during a meeting with the office-bearers and president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here on Wednesday.
According to a press release issued by the SCCI, the railways official conceded the SCCI president's demand, and said his organization had decided to operate a special train, once every week, from Peshawar to ensure transportation of export goods from this part of the country to Karachi in five days.
He said the railways would improve the existing facilities at the Peshawar dry port and new godowns would be constructed in addition to ensuring the provision of modern facilities to facilitate local exporters.
Mr Rashid said the Pakistan Railways had made ample arrangements to ensure security for the goods transported from Peshawar to Karachi and more measures would be taken to bring about further improvement.
He informed the SCCI members that the Pakistan Railways would purchase modern cargo wagons from China as a step forward to ensure modern and improved facilities to exporters. The first batch of the Chinese wagons, he added, would arrive in June this year.
SCCI President Adeel Rauf and the Chairman of the SCCI's standing committee on railways, Mr Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, apprised the visiting managing director of the Pakistan Railways Dry Ports Organization about the issues and problems confronting the local exporters.
They also put forth recommendations to bring about the much wanted improvement which, they added, would not only benefit the local traders and exporters, rather, the Pakistan Railways would also get improved business from this part of the country.
FLIGHTS FOR KABUL: Meanwhile, the former president of SCCI, Mr Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, in a press statement issued here on Wednesday, demanded of the federal government to operate two flights of PIA in a week between Peshawar and Kabul.
Similarly, he added, the national carrier's flights operating between Kabul and Islamabad should also proceed via Peshawar to facilitate local population and business community. He said an assurance to this effect had been given by Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz in his meeting with the SCCI members several months back but the same remained unfulfilled.