The Railways Minister says that they will run a freight service with permission of Prime Minister Imran Khan from April 15th.
LAHORE: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-April 4th, 2020) Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed said that railways incurring more than a Rs 1 billion loss every week due to Coronavirus pandemic.
Sheikh Rasheed said that Railways started its freight service with Prime Minister’s permission from 15th of April.
“We started a record 20 trains before the lockdown,” said Sheikh Rasheed, adding that the passengers would have been stranded in Karachi if they had not run 40 trains before the lockdown.
He announced to run 20 trains when this lockdown was over, saying that it was the existing demand. He expressed these views while addressing a press conference here in Lahore.
“More than 165,00 passengers travelled in trains in the last two days before the lockdown,” said the Railways Minister.
Rasheed said that data of collies, railways employees and pensioners was sent to Ehsaas Programme for income support.
“No employee of Pakistan Railways has contacted the virus and the situation in the country is better as compared to some other countries. The situation will become clearer on April 14; if not, we will not resume train operations in the country,” said Sheikh Rasheed.
The trains were suspected last week in compliance of the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan amid fears of Coronavirus pandemic. Initially, there was suspension from March 24 to March 31 but later it was extended when the cases crossed 1000 across the country.
