Pakistan Railways Advisory & Consultancy Services (PRACS) returns Rehman Baba Express to Pakistan Railways on Saturday after wrecking it. The PRACS had handed over the luggage van of Rehman Baba Express to a private without tenders. Online counter for reservation for the train have not been initiated till now and it was feared that the train was travel without passengers on first day. It should be mentioned here that some two month earlier, PRACS had written a formal letter to return the commercial management of the train, which will expire today (Saturday). From September 17, Rehman Baba Express will be completely under the control of Pakistan Railways. After the failure of Rehman Baba, PRACS was now willing to run Hazara Express. According to the official documents available with this news agency, Pakistan Railways has awarded the railway company PRACS to the successful bid. The Rehman Baba Express train was outsourced in which the train was operated by Pakistan Railways while passenger ticketing and ticket checking including booking of baggage in the luggage well was outsourced to the PRACS. Firstly PRACS excused that the fare of this train was high against other trains, so it should also be reduced and if the trains of this route are not restored, it will reduce our profit.

The other trains closed due to this reason have not been restored, but afterwards the PRACS formally approved to return the train to Pakistan Railways by September 16. Despite being handed over to Pakistan Railways by PRACS, the online booking of Rehman Baba Express has not been started, which may put the most successful train at risk. Rehman Baba runs between Faisalabad and Karachi via Peshawar. As per another document of PRACS, it wants to take over the commercial management of Hazara Express from Pakistan Railways, which will be taken under the agreement with the government and 60 percent of the train will go to PRs while 40 percent to PRACS. It should be noted here that the PRACS has stopped doing its original work after which the railway officers are desirous to award passenger trains to it so that this company can survive. According to PRACS officials, they were facing a loss of one million on daily basis during last one and half month due to which they returned the train to PRs. In according with notice of PRACS served two month ago to return the train and completing on September 16, Pakistan Railway has also directed to take back the commercial management of the train.(M.Awais)

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)