Islamabad-Istanbul Freight Train to Start on Aug 14

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour has announced that a freight train service from Islamabad to Istanbul via Tehran will be launched on August 14.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the minister said that if the freight service succeeded, a passenger train would also be introduced on the route.

The minister said he hoped that Pakistan Railways would eventually be able to introduce train service to Europe through Turkey. For that, he added, railway tracks would have to be modified and upgraded.

He announced that Pakistan and China had agreed to establish a consortium for various projects, including the laying of railway track up to Iran and Afghanistan and construction of coaches in Pakistan.

He said the volume of trade between Pakistan, Iran and Turkey was around $15 billion and was growing. The best way to reduce the cost of goods was to link the three countries of the Economic Coordination Organisation with a train service.

Mr Bilour said the passengers’ movement was also growing and the rail link offered a profitable business potential.

He said the main hurdle was the difference of track gauge. Pakistan has broad gauge while most tracks in Iran were of meter gauge. Iran will provide transhipment facilities at Zahedan station till a standard gauge line is laid between Zahedan-Mirjaveh and Quetta.

Mr Bilour said his ministry hoped that the consortium to be set up with Chinese companies would lay standard gauge tracks up to the borders of Afghanistan, Iran and China.

‘The Chinese are building the Torkham-Jalalabad track. We want to link Karachi with Torkham, Khunjrab with Islamabad and Gawadar to Quetta and onwards,’ he said.

The minister said the issues of the cost and financing of the project would be resolved soon. Pakistan, he added, would like a ‘build and manage’ model and avoid financial involvement in the project.

The length of the Islamabad-Istanbul rail link is 6,500 kilometres, 1,900km in Pakistan, 2,570km in Iran and 2,036km in Turkey.

According to railway officials, initially the existing common tariff structure between Turkey and Iran, based on the Europe-Asia Tariff structure, would apply to the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul container service.

The idea to establish rail links between Pakistan, Iran and Turkey dates back to 1970s but it was the 10th ECO summit held in Tehran in March this year which decided to launch it in August this year.

The minister said Pakistan had placed an order to China for 200 railway coaches, out of which 150 would be built in Pakistan.