QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch has inaugurated a freight train service, which would ply between Quetta and Iranian city of Zahidan once a week.
Pakistan Railways Chairwoman Parveen Agha, Balochistan ministers Sardar Raza Baraich, Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal, Nawab Muhammad Khan Shahwani, Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani, CCPO Abdul Razzaq Cheema and senior PR officials were present on the occasion.
The chief minister said that business community of Balochistan would be major beneficiary of Quetta-Zahidan goods train, adding, “We request Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways Saad Rafique to make Quetta-Taftan railway track fast by making it enable for increasing train speed from 40 km per hour to 120 km per hour.”
Lauding the efforts of federal minister for railways, he said, “Saad Rafique is captain of Pakistan Railways who made hectic efforts to bring improvement in railways system”. Earlier, Parveen Agha said that train was operational between Quetta and Taftan once a month to provide ration, water and salaries to the employees and carrying out postal service.
The train would bring 2,000 litres of oil from Iran initially which would be increased up to 5,000 litres in future as the price of oil was about Rs14 to 15 per litre in Iran.