New Chinese railway coaches to run from 27th.

LAHORE -- The Pakistan Railways (PR) is going to start from Jan 27 the commercial operations of the new state-of-the-art passenger 46 coaches recently imported from China as the completely built units (CBUs) manufactured by a Chinese firm under an agreement.

The coaches' operation would begin with the composition of the Green Line Express Train that will resume running from Islamabad to Karachi via Rawalpindi, Lahore, Khanewal and Sukkur.

The operation of the train was suspended in August last year due to the floods and it would be resumed with new Chinese coaches, Dawn has learnt.

'The trial run of the coaches has been completed. After the trial, it has been decided to operate them as a part of Green Line Express Train from Margalla Station (Islamabad) to Karachi with effect from Jan 27,' an official source in the railways said while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.

'The new coaches are well-equipped with modern facilities including Wifi, dining, LCDs, phone charging and others. All services will be free of cost,' he added.

The official said 46 new coaches would comprise three rakes-one will move from Islamabad, another from Karachi and the third would be stationed at Lahore as a spare one.

It merits mentioning that the 46 high-speed modern coaches were received as CBUs from China on Nov 27 last year, paving the way for provision of state-of-the-art rail travel facilities to the masses. Arrangements have also been made to start manufacturing of 184 similar coaches (passenger, luggage and brake vans) under the technology-transfer component of the 230 coaches' purchase contract. Since the test run of all 46 coaches was...