As part of efforts to improve rail links with neighbouring countries for promoting movement of people and freight, India plans to operationalise the second train service with Pakistan by January next year.“The Indian Railways is to operationalise the second India-Pakistan link at Munabao (Rajasthan)-Khokrapar (in Pakistan’s Sindh province) by January next. The first link at Attari-Wagah is already operational,” said JP Batra, chairman Railway Board during the two-day meet of the International Union of Railways (UIC), in the national capital.
In a presentation at the meet that is seeking to promote regional rail networks, chairman of the World Executive Council of UIC said the link between Rajasthan and Sindh was closed after the 1965 war between the two countries.Work is on to upgrade the infrastructure, particularly on the Pakistan side where part of the rail lines had been removed.About 75 per cent of the upgradation work has been completed and the remaining would be completed by the year-end, railway ministry officials said on Friday.
The commencement of the Munabao-Khokrapar is expected to coincide with the opening of an Indian consulate in Karachi.On the Bangladesh side, Batra said three more exchange points on the border - Gede-Dashana, Petrapole-Benapole and Sugbad-Roharpur - currently used for freight are being explored for running passenger trains.“We will start trial runs for passenger trains soon,” said Batra.On the rail link with Myanmar, he said India was going ahead with the Tupai-Tuma link project.“India has to construct another 130 km on its side till Topori station in Mizoram, which will be the last station on the Indian side,” the official said.
In the case of Bhutan railway link, the official said the Indian Railway consultancy arm was currently in the process of carrying out the survey, which is likely to be completed by January.Batra also said that the ongoing work had been declared a national project, and would thus be receiving budgetary support for timely completion.On the new dedicated freight corridor, Batra said that in the first instance the feasibility study was being conducted for the Kolkata-Delhi and Delhi-Mumbai corridors.At present, the axle load, which is 20.6 tonnes, has been increased to 22.8 tonnes on selected routes.On the freight corridor, it is proposed to increase the axle load to between 25 to 30 tonnes on the lines of freight trains in countries like Brazil, South Africa, the US, Australia and China.
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