Daily Times

Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed has said that the federal government decides to take back important railway properties in Karachi in a bid to increase the income of Pakistan Railways.

Sheikh Rasheed, while addressing a press conference in Karachi, said that it has been decided to take back important properties of PR. He said the state-owned entity Pakistan Railways has 38-canal land and Prime Minister Imran Khan will take final decision for its utilisation. He said that 31 canals of land have been retrieved so far.

“We have reduced losses up to Rs 4 billion and it is our target to shrink it to Rs 6 billion this year. In a session, we have decided to hand over PR land to the Sindh government as most of the land is not in our usage. We are going to transfer responsible officers from Lahore to Karachi.”

“KCR [Karachi Circular Railway] is a project of the Sindh government and we will assist the province if it makes some progress [for its restoration]. Karachi is the jugular vein of railway and a railway university will be established in Sindh under the ML-1 [Main Line 1] project. I had established two universities in Rawalpindi.”

“ML-1 project will generate 100,000 jobs for nationals. We are going to privatise and upgrade railway hospitals with the support of government,” he said. “I am here in Karachi to hold a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.”

“PR land is grabbed by some influential people and we are going to recover it now. Everyone is allowed to get trains from PR on rental basis.”

“Currently, we have no capacity to run a new train. However, we will run a special train for Afghan transit trade which will also assist us to stop smuggling.”

While commenting over the Supreme Court’s proceedings against Pakistan Railways, Rasheed said that SC gave them guidelines and sought the business plan.