F.P. Report
Mardan: Federal Minister Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad here on Sunday inaugurated Safari Train service from Nowshera to Mardan and Dargai with the purpose to boost tourists industry Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The federal minister Railway Sheikh Rashid Ahmad travelled in Safari Train from Nowshera district to Mardan district along with relevant staff of Railway department.
On the occasion, senior provincial minister KPK Muhammad Atif Khan, Minister of State for parliamentary affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, PTI lawmakers including MNA Mujahid Khan, MPAs Zahir Shah Toru, Abdus Salam Afridi and Ifikhar Ali Mashwani were also among the attendance.
Addressing participants of the inaugural ceremony, Mr. Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said that the Remains of Takhtbai city Buddhists Monastery was listed in the World Heritage List that was why the government was taking steps to bring foreign tourists via Safari train-service.
He claimed that the government was committed to soon restore train service from Dargai to Karachi city on the said railway track. ”We are going to grow trees and gardens on both sides of said railway tracks so that to improve beautification, ” he added.
The Federal Minister said that they had planned to launch work next month on ML-1for which 1700- kilometers long tack would be installed from Peshawar city to Karachi, adding that train would travel on the said tack with the speed of 160.
He said that they were demolishing some parts of mountains of Gujar Khan and Jehlum to construct 69-kilometer strait railway route within those mountains. After that development, he claimed that travelling in train would reduced to 2-hours from Rawalpindi to Lahore districts.
He said that they were taking steps to launch three new train services each from KPK and Sindh provinces. On the occasion, he announced to hand-over four steam-engines to PTI provincial government for which the KPK regime had to pay salaries of staff and other expenditures.
