New Delhi
6 January 2006
After two days of talks between their railway delegations, India and
Pakistan on Friday agreed to commence weekly broad-guage train operations between
Munabao in Rajasthan and newly established "Zero Point" station near Khokrapar in
Sindh from February 1.
"This passenger train between the two countries will be called the Thar Express. Both
sides discussed a draft Agreement pertaining to the modalities of the running of the train.
An Indian delegation will visit Pakistan before the end of January 2006 for the signing of
this Agreement," said a joint statement.
The rake for this service will be provided alternately by Indian and Pakistan Railways on
a six monthly basis. For the first six months, the Pakistan train will cross into India to
Munabao. Thereafter, the Indian train will cross into Pakistan to Zero Point Railway
Station near Khokrapar. This six monthly process will be repeated alternately.
Mr Ashok Gupta, Adviser Traffic in the Ministry of Railways told reporters the frequency
of The TharExpress will be weekly initially. "Depending on traffic requirement [both sides
can] mutually decide to augment [the service]," he said at a joint news conference with
Mr Saleem-ur-Rahman Akhoond, general manager of Pakistan Railways.
Mr Gupta said the fare for the the Thar Express will be "similar" to the Samjhauta
Express already plying between the two countries. He said that the agreement to be
signed later this month will be valid for the next three years. The custom and
immigration checks will be carried out at Munabao station on the Indian side and Zero
Point station on the Pakistani side.
Mr Akhoond, in turn, said the Pakistan Railways finished the task of guage conversion
from metre guage to broad guage in a record time of eight months to "reciprocate the
Indian gesture". He said this work would usually have taken between 18 to 20 months to
accomplish.
An estimated 400 passengers will be able to travel on the Thar Express. Mr Gupta said
this number can be increased depending on the number of visas issued by both sides.
"The number of passengers has not been decided. It will depend on the issuance of
visas and the demand," he said.
The Thar Express will travel 2.5 kilometres from Munabao to the international border and
reach the Zero Point station, a few hundred metres away, where the custom and
immigration checks will be carried out. The train will then travel eight kilometres to reach
the Khokrapar station from where connecting train services onwards to Karachi or
Hyderabad will be available.
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