LAHORE: Pakistan Railways secretary Habib-ur-Rehman Gillani has resolved to upgrade the cargo movement services to facilitate the industry by reducing the cost of doing business and to enable the exporters compete with the regional competitors.

During a visit to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) in Lahore on Friday, the Railways secretary agreed that over the years Railways has become passenger-centric and lost its competitiveness in freight handling.

He; however, dispelled the impression that the cargo handling was the least priority of Railways, adding that cargo handling has increased from 0.4 million tonnes in 2012 to over 5 million tonnes in 2017.

Gillani vowed to further ameliorate cargo handling by providing cost effective, expeditious and state-of-the-art cargo movement.

Railways being an essential component of economic security is being upgraded and fully automated with the least human interface to offer the best services to its clients, he said, adding that Railways had already outsourced its freight handling services to Pakistan Railways Freight Transportation Company (Pvt) Ltd and is in the process of outsourcing passenger trains, as well.

He assured the Aptma members of facilitating them in terms of logistics, freight, and cargo transportation and appreciated the proposal of Aptma Cargo Train sympathetically.

Gillani announced the formation of a joint committee to work out modalities for the implementation of the idea and resolution of other day-to-day operational issues.

He offered Railways land, rolling stock, fastest track and professional human resource for the successful launch of the Aptma train.

He expressed the hope that a dedicated train for the textile sector would reduce the cost of doing business by more than 10 per cent, enabling them to compete with the regional competitors.

Aptma chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir highlighted the strengths and potential of the textile industry of Pakistan and said that the textile sector is on an upward trajectory with a lofty exports target of $21 billion for the current fiscal year as against the actual exports of $15 billion during the last year.

The industry is set to get new investment of $5 billion, add 100 new plants and create 500,000 extra jobs in the country.

He thanked the government for providing an enabling environment for the growth of the textile industry and consequent increase in exports earnings.

Nasir said that the phenomenal growth in the global trade has not only created a container shortage but has also alarmingly increased containers and freight cost.

He urged the Railways for a proactive role to bring out Pakistani exporters from this disadvantageous position. He also proposed a dedicated freight corridor for effective expeditious transportation of cargo and launching of “Aptma Cargo Train” exclusively to handle imports and exports of the textile sector on the public-private partnership mode.

Nasir expressed the hope that the launching of the Aptma Cargo Train will go a long way in fostering exports and facilitating the movement of goods to meet the deadlines.

Kamran Arshad, senior vice chairman of the association thanked the Railways secretary for visiting Aptma and discussing various options for boosting trade through the utilisation of rail services.

He expressed the hope that the constitution of Railways and Aptma joint committee will create an enabling environment for uplifting commercial and economic activities in the country.

He vowed to extend full cooperation from Aptma to Pakistan Railways for providing excellent expeditious and effective cargo handling services.