Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: An agreement was inked between the Pakistan Railways and the United Bank Limited (UBL) to launch an e-ticketing system, under which passengers will get confirmation of their booking through an email or an SMS.

The new system allows intending passengers to make payments through credit cards, debit cards, mobile banking and UBL Omni for their e-tickets. On completion of the transaction, the Pakistan Railways will send a confirmatory SMS to the passengers, in which the ticket number, coach number, seat number, CNIC number of the passenger, and date and time of the train will be mentioned. The SMS will be treated as a ticket.

After the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq said that when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came into power, the Pakistan Railways was a dying entity.

“The sitting government has put the department on the path of progress. Due to better teamwork, the government reduced the department’s loss to Rs 27 billion from Rs 37 billion,” he said.

He said that in the fiscal year 2011-12 the income of Pakistan Railways was only Rs 1.80 billion. “With the efforts of the government, some 10.25 million passengers have been encouraged to use trains again. The department did not take any bailout package from the government.”

He said that today was a historic day, as the Pakistan Railways had to work hard for almost one-and-a-half years for this milestone. He was of the view that e-ticketing would help get rid of black tickets. He said that the UBL offered comparatively lesser rates and won the contract. He said that the Asian Development Bank had contacted the government itself to provide a soft loan for the Pakistan Railways. The minister informed the audience that at present the Pakistan Railways was free of politics or any conspiracy.

“I did not induct even a single man from my constituency. I did not receive any recommendation from the Prime Minister’s House; rather the summaries sent by us were processed with great pace at the PM’s Secretariat,” Saad said. He said that three trains had been going into loss, but now they were plying with profit. “The entire system of the Pakistan Railways had become obsolete. Tracks were aged, while railway stations looked like haunted houses.