LAHORE, Sept 19: The Pakistan Railways is holding negotiations with the Postal Services for issuing rail tickets from post offices, says PR general manager Iqbal Samad Khan.

He told a press conference here on Thursday that the railways was inter-linking reservations between various stations to facilitate passengers.

A computerized reservation centre had started functioning in Peshawar from today while another centre at the Lahore Cantonment station would become operative by the month-end and at Faisalabad in November, he added.

These centres would also provide return reservations facility and there would be no quota bar in this regard, he said.

He said quota of seats and berths had been reserved for Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Narowal and Gujranwala for the Karakoram Express. From Hyderabad an additional coach would be attached with the train, he added.

The GM said from Sept 25 the train would reach Karachi from Lahore and vice versa within 16 hours against 16 and half hours at present. The achievement could be made after replacement and repair of track, he said.

Mr Khan said 80-kilometre long track would be replaced during the current financial year and 200 kms in the next fiscal. Afterwards 240-km long track would be replaced every year, he added.

He said travel timings of other trains running between Lahore and Karachi would also be reduced by Oct 15.

He also announced reduction in fares for parlour and lower AC coaches running between Lahore-Rawalpindi, Lahore-Faisalabad, and Lahore-Multan.

He said a parlour car and an economy coach would be added to the Karakoram Express from December this year, while a lower AC coach had been added to the Awam Express from Lahore from today (Sept 19).

APP ADDS: The provincial minister for food and agriculture, Khurshid Zaman Qureshi, has said that the government is going to provide cold-storage facilities at all airports and railway stations to boost the export of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

“We are also going to ensure availability of refrigerated vehicles to carry fruits from Multan, Rahimyar Khan and Sargodha to major airports in the province,” Mr Qureshi said here on Thursday.

Talking to a delegation of growers, he said the government was also planning to introduce a one-window operation at airports to facilitate the exporters.

The minister said working groups for fruit and vegetables would be set up on the pattern of those for cotton and rice.

He said researchers had also been directed to devise new ways to augment the shelf-life of fruit and vegetables.