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LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways finalised on Wednesday arrangements to launch on Friday (tomorrow) the Business Express, the first non-stop train to run between Punjab and Sindh capitals with its passenger facilitation by the private sector.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is likely to be the chief guest at its inauguration ceremony at the Lahore railway station.
The first trial run of the train was conducted successfully on Jan 26.
The Pakistan Railways and M/s Four Brothers International (Pvt) Ltd had signed on Aug 18 last year an agreement to operate the train between Punjab and Sindh capitals as a joint venture under public-private partnership. The train was to start running between Lahore City and Karachi Cantt within 120 days of signing the agreement, but its inauguration had to be postponed because its coaches could not be renovated and upgraded according to the standard of the private company in time.
Comprising nine AC coaches, two power and one luggage vans and a dining car, the up train will leave Karachi City at 3:30pm and reach Lahore at 9:35am the next day, while the down special will leave Lahore at 3:30pm to arrive at Karachi City at 10am the next day, after having technical stoppages at Khanewal and Rohri.
Under the agreement, the company will invest Rs225.786 million to bring value adding ‘substantive changes’ to the passenger services, including ticketing, luggage care, bedding and food service etc. It will pay Rs1.573 million per single train journey and Rs1.148 billion per annum to railways at the rate of 88 per cent of carrying capacity of the train.
The agreement will be valid for five years and can be extended for another term with the consent of both the parties.
