First fleet of 20 state-of-the-art coaches from China will arrive in Pakistan this month, National Assembly told

Islamabad: Parliamentary Secretary for Railways Kiran Imran Dar told the National Assembly that the first fleet of 20 state-of-the-art coaches from China will arrive in Pakistan by the end of October 2022.

During the question hour, she informed the House that Pakistan Railways had procured 230 new passenger coaches from China to provide comfortable journeys to the passengers as per international standards.

The speed of the train, she said, will increase from 65- 105kilometres per hour to 120-160km/h after the induction of the news Chinese coaches. “The journey time will be reduced by half after the implementation of this project,” she added.

Dar maintained that the signaling system of 44 stations had been automated by Computer Based Interlocking (CBI) over Shandadpur-Mirpur, Mathelo and Lodhran- Shandara Bagh sections.

“This has considerably improved punctuality owing to swift operation in the automated section,” she mentioned.

The Parliamentary Secretary claimed that the Pakistan Railways was rigorously perusing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s Main Line 1 (ML-1).

She told the House that the ML-1 track was being upgraded after a long delay of four years.