The News reported that Pakistan, Iran and Turkey will work to enhance the existing state of rail and road infrastructure to interconnect each other which would help reduce travel time for goods cargo across the ECO region.

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that this was agreed upon by representatives of both the public and private sectors of these countries and other ECO states during a series of meetings, which were recently concluded in Turkey. The 11th meeting of the heads of ECO railway authorities was held from June 27th to 28th 2012 in Ankara.

Mr Junaid Qureshi GM of Pakistan Railways and Mr Amjad Rafi chairman of the Pakistan Turkey Business Council of the FPCCI represented Pakistan during the talks.

It was highlighted that the Quetta and Taftan rail track has to be upgraded. Moreover, there is shortage of engines for this route on the Pakistan side. The Islamic Development Bank has requested some technical details from the government of Pakistan in order to finalize funding for this project adding that it was noted that owing to the abovementioned reasons, the Islamabad Istanbul rail route has been non operational for the last few months.

However, the general manager Railways announced that the rail service would be recommenced from July 15th 2012. Representatives of the business community from the three countries said that in order to ensure interest of the private sector, it was essential that a regular schedule be announced for the train with a fixed running time.

The current running time of the train has increased from 14 days to 18 days and Pakistan was requested to curtail the running time, which was longest in Pakistan’s territory.

The second ECO regional conference on road transit development and TIR conventions was held in Istanbul from June 29th to 30th 2012. Pakistan was represented by Mr Anwar Ahmed Khan secretary of the ministry of communications and Amjad Rafi.

Source - The News.com

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