KARACHI, 30 January 2006 — The railway authorities have completed all arrangements to run a train from Karachi to the Indian border but are waiting for formal approval, sources said.
“The tickets for the new route have been printed and would be made public after the two governments finalize the agreements,” Junaid Qureshi, divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways, Karachi said.
A delegation of Indian Railway officials arrived in Lahore from New Delhi via the Wagah border on Saturday and talks are expected to start today and continue for two days. The tickets are valid from Karachi to Zero Point (the buffer area between the two countries) and cost 230 rupees.
The tickets have been printed in Lahore and have been dispatched to Karachi but will only be sold once the talks come through.
The train, called the Thar Express, would start its journey from Karachi’s Cantonment Railway Station at 11:00 p.m. and will reach Zero Point at about 8:00 a.m. After customs clearance etc, the train then will move forward to the Indian territory. The track is 130 km long from Mirpurkhas to Munabao.
Before reaching Zero Point, the train will also stop over in Mirpurkhas to drop off passengers for local routes. The authorities took six months to rebuild the destroyed tracks and platforms at an expense of 1.5 billion rupees.
Federal Minister of State for Railways Ishaq Khan Khakwani said any confirmed date for the first trip will only be disclosed after the two governments formalized the agreement. But he added that the matter would not be delayed beyond Feb. 15. After the agreement is signed, it would take at least 10-15 days to make the agreement public and advertise the bookings.
The provincial government is making arrangements for the historic event and a large number of dignitaries want to be on this train to India. “The authorities are compiling lists of scores of politicians, bureaucrats, ministers and journalists to get them to Indian soil,” said a Sindh government official. Similar arrangements are being made in Khokhrapar and near Zero Point, he added.
