Cargo train operations to resume between Pakistan, Turkey after nine years

The Pakistan Railways has announced that international goods train services will resume between Pakistan and Turkey from March 4 after a hiatus of nine years.

According to a statement issued, the train will travel from Turkey to Karachi over a time span of two weeks. It will reach Karachi via, Rohri, Quetta, Zahedan, and Iran.

The first international cargo train will be bringing electronics for domestic consumption. The same train will leave Karachi for Turkey this month carrying other goods.

The administration carried out several test journeys on the route. The transit line was not regularised due to pending infrastructure development.

In December, last year Turkey’s Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu announced that the Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad (ITI) railway is expected to resume operations in 2021. According to Karaismailoglu, both container and freight transportation will soon resume on the route. The growing changes in the diplomatic landscape between the three countries have allowed the railway operation to resume.

ITI project was initially launched in 2009. The railway line starts from Istanbul, through Tehran, to Islamabad. This routes takes eleven a half days and has a maximum capacity of twenty 50-feet containers.