ISLAMABAD: The second Inter-Ministerial Meeting on the improvement of rail connectivity with Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Bin Qasim (BQM) and Gawadar was held on Tuesday at Ministry of Railways, Islamabad.
Ministry of Railways Chairperson Parveen Agha said that Pakistan Railways (PR) is repositioning itself for CPEC and KPT is quite important for connectivity. While chairing the meeting she claimed there is a substantial increase in line capacity of Main Line I.
It was proposed at the meeting that railway track extension shall be done up to pilot gate of KPT and the track will be adjacent to Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT). KPT also raised the issue of condemned wagons. According to PR, condemned wagons are being cleared on priority and so far 179 out of 525 condemned wagons have been cleared. It was decided that South Asia Pakistan Terminal Limited (SAPT) has to furnish vertical and horizontal coordinates for lying of 1.1 km track. It was proposed by KICT to give its Bolan gate to SAPT for convenience.
Meanwhile, it was also told that scrap alongside the track has been cleared and now full-length trains are being placed for loading of coal/phosphate at Kemari.
Another thing which was brought under discussion was the loading of containers from inside Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT). Although the right of way inside PICT is not established yet loading from inside the terminal has been started recently through coordination among PR, KPT, and PICT.
KPT also assured that rehabilitation of Railway yards inside KPT will be carried out. The rail connectivity with PIBT at Port Qasim was also brought under discussion. PIBT showed its interest in the creation of state of the art freight station for PR.
The meeting was attended by Maritime Affairs Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, KPT GM Asif Hammad, SAPT CEO Syed Rashid Jamil, KICT CEO Horace Hui and PICT CEO Khurram Khan along with Agha Waseem, Syed Munawar Shah, Syed Mazhar Ali Shah and Basharat Waheed who represented the Ministry of Railways.
It is a known fact that PR is giving importance to Rail connectivity with ports. For this purpose, PR is working on doubling existing track from Port Qasim to Bin Qaim. The new track of 10.30 km out of 13 km is completed. Meanwhile, extension and construction of 5 bridges have been started on the track. There is 85 per cent of cumulative financial progress on this project.
