Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Monday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced to restore train operations in the country from Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, Sheikh Rasheed said that PM Imran Khan has approved to operate 30 trains from May 20. The minister said that all standard operating procedures (SOP) would be adopted during the train operation.

Sheikh Rasheed said that many people have already made online pre-bookings of train tickets. He outlined some SOPs saying that citizens should not come to pick up or drop off passengers to railway stations as a precautionary measure and noted that there is no restriction on the travelers’ age. He warned that no violation of SOPs will be tolerated and any such instance would result in action against the Regional Superintendent.

Rasheed added he was waiting for a decision by the Prime Minister. “I can take the decision to resume train operations myself; however, the Prime Minister has not given me permission to do this.”

He added that he could not work on the SOPs the day after tomorrow. “If you give me permission [to resume train operations] today or tomorrow, I can work on SOPs. After that, I cannot,” he noted.

The federal minister added if train operations do not resume in the next two days, railways authorities will have to apologise to the people. “We have to give pensions and salaries to people before Eid.”

More than 7,000 policemen have been deployed to ensure the implementation of the SOPs.

“We will review the situation and if everything goes well then we will restore all train services from June 1,” he announced.