Railway chairperson meets NEFT director

Islamabad: Ministry of Railways Chairperson Parveen Agha, met Brigadier Bashir, Director NEFT, National Logistics Cell (NLC) on Thursday.

She appreciated that NLC has always supported Pakistan Railways. She invited NLC to commercialise their maintenance facility in Karachi for Pakistan Railways. As a result Brigadier Bashir agreed to check the feasibility of commercialisation.

He advised that trackers can be fixed in Pakistan Railways locomotives to check the movement of trains. It was also decided that NLC can assist Pakistan Freight Transportation Company to diversify itself for Public Private Partnership. Update on restoration of Sibi Harnai Section, in Balochistan, was also deliberated. Both passenger and freight trains will resume operation on the track soon.

The rail track amid Sibi and Harnai was laid by the British in 1884, touching Nakas, Shahrigh Khost and Zhob. There have been eight railway stations on the section and at least 133 kilometres track required reintegration. Militants had in 2007-8 demolished five big and three small bridges between Sibi and Khost, forcing deferral of all kinds of rail provision on the section.