PAKISTAN: Pakistan Railways has inaugurated a service transporting containers from Hutchison Ports’ South Asia Pakistan Terminal in Karachi to inland destinations including Lahore.
Speaking at the launch ceremony on January 24, Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati said the port is expected to handle 3·1 million containers/year, offering Pakistan Railways ‘huge potential’ with annual revenues of Rs6bn envisaged.
The minster said rail connectivity would expand the port’s hinterland and ‘drastically curtail’ traffic congestion.
Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi said that ‘for Pakistan to achieve its economic potential, it is most important to make Karachi an international standard business hub. That will itself lift the whole country economically.’
Meanwhile, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan State Oil have signed an MoU for the transport of oil products. The Minister of Railways said the ‘landmark’ deal would ‘strengthen the bonds of trust between the two national flag bearers’, supporting national economic growth and contributing to the national exchequer.
Pakistan Railways reports that it transported 25 054 tonnes/day from Karachi in 2020-21, up from 23 051 tonnes/day in 2019-20. PR said it had introduced competitive rates to attract traffic, and high capacity wagons have enabled the movement of coal to be accelerated.
Meanwhile, a scrapyard management system and a productivity suite based on Google technologies have been deployed at the Railway Carriage Factory in Islamabad. This is designed to streamline inventory management and improve transparency.
