Pakistan – Railways
Pakistan Railways is a state-owned company
of Pakistan under the Ministry of Railways (MoR) of
the government of Pakistan and headquartered in Lahore, tasked with
and primarily responsible for planning, administrating and establishing
passenger rail service and regulating railway companies and industries.
Pakistan Railways policy and development are administered by the ministry.
It owns 7,791 kilometres of track across Pakistan
from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and
passenger services.
The Ministry of Railways launched Pakistan
Railways Vision 2026, which seeks to increase PR's share in Pakistan's transportation
sector from 4% to 20%, using the ₨886.68
billion (US$5.5 billion) China–Pakistan Economic
Corridor rail upgrade. The plan includes building new locomotives,
development and improvement of current rail infrastructure, an increase in
average train speed, improved on-time performance and expansion of passenger
service. The first phase of the project was completed in 2017, and the second
phase is scheduled for completion by 2021. Pakistan Railways is an active
member of the International Union of Railways.
In the year 2019-20 financial year, Pakistan Railways served
70 million passengers. Pakistan Railway offered international tender on 12
September 2020 for new vision of Pakistan Railway's Main Line -1 (ML1).
Meanwhile, In recent development the construction of ML-1 project in three
phases had been approved by Pakistan Railways held in August 2020. The actual cost of the
project was initially $9bn, including equity amount of the government of
Pakistan. But later, it was reduced gradually to $6.8bn.
Pakistan Railways has 190 working diesel-electric
locomotives.
Pakistan Railways owns 11,881 kilometres of track. All
are 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) (broad gauge), except
for some industrial lines.
The broad-gauge track axle load limit is 22.86 tonnes,
except for the Rohri-Chaman Line and Quetta-Taftan Line (limit
17.27 tonnes). The maximum speed on most lines is 120 kilometres per hour, but
upgraded sections of the Karachi-Peshawar Line allow speeds up to 130
kilometres per hour. Work is in progress to upgrade all main lines to
160 kilometres per hour.
New rail lines have been proposed by Pakistan Railways to
connect Gwadar Port to Central Asia, including:
Karachi–Gwadar
Railway Line (Makran Railway)
Gwadar–Mastung
Branch Line
Basima–Jacobabad
Branch Line
Bostan–Zhob–Dera
Ismail Khan Branch Line
Islamabad–Muzaffarabad
Branch Line
Jhang
Sadar–Risalewala Branch Line
Breaks of gauge
In
Pakistan: 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)–1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
at Gwadar Port
Outside Pakistan: 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)–1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in)
at Mazar-i-sharif, Afghanistan and 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)–1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
at Kashgar, China
Track-doubling project
Over 1,409 kilometres of tracks have been doubled since the
track-doubling project began in the 1990s. Sections of
the Karachi–Peshawar Line were first doubled, since it was the
country's busiest and longest line.
Pakistan Government has given its approval for the $7.2bn
project to upgrade the railway between Karachi and Peshawar. The modernisation
of the rail line is expected to boost the speed of the passenger trains to
160km/h from 110km/h.
Karachi–Peshawar
Line
Kiamari–Lodhran
Junction: 843 kilometres
Lodhran
Junction–Sher Shah Junction: 72 kilometres
Sher Shah
Junction–Multan Cantonment: 15 kilometres
Multan
Cantonment–Khanewal Junction: 49 kilometres
Khanewal
Junction–Sahiwal: 119 kilometres
Sahiwal–Okara:
103 kilometres
Bhoe
Asal–Raiwind Junction: 23 kilometres
Raiwind
Junction–Shahdara Bagh Junction: 46 kilometres
Chaklala–Golra
Sharif Junction: 19 kilometres
Rohri–Chaman
Line
Aab-e-Gum–Kolpur:
37 kilometres
Gulistan–Chaman:
60 kilometres
Lahore–Wagah
branch line
Lahore
Junction–Wagah: 23 kilometres