The ''Thar Express'' ( hi, थार एक्सप्रेस, ur, , Sindhi: ٿر ايڪسپريس) was an international

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

that ran between the a suburban area of

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

in the Indian State of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

and of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

in the Pakistani Province of

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

. The name of the train is derived from the

Thar Desert The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's Li ...

a sub-continental desert, which lies in the north-western part of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

and ranks 17th in the world covering an area of . It's a second train after the ''

Samjhauta Express The Samjhauta Express () was a bi-weekly train — Thursday and Monday — that runs between Delhi and Attari in India and Lahore in Pakistan. The word ''Samjhauta'' means "agreement", "accord" and "compromise" in both Hindi and Urdu. Unti ...

'' for direct connectivity between India and Pakistan on the basis of

Simla Agreement The Simla Agreement, also spelled Shimla Agreement, was a peace treaty signed between India and Pakistan on 2 July 1972 in Shimla, the capital city of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It followed the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which ...

after the restoring of the Jodhpur–Hyderabad rail route which was closed for 41 years till 2006. As of 9 August 2019, the Thar Express had been cancelled until further notice due to escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.

History

During British rule, in 1892, the Hyderabad–Jodhpur Railway constructed the Jodhpur–Hyderabad mainline within two sections. The first section was Luni–Shadipalli section, which was a metre-gauge section line and the second section was Shadipalli–Hyderabad section, which was originally constructed as a

broad-gauge railway A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

section line but due to less passenger transportation on that time it was converted to

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

in the year 1901 and joined the first section of the mainline."Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 188
Retrieved 6 Feb 2016 India_railways1909a

During the year 1901, the ''

Sind Mail Sind Mail was a passenger train that ran between Bombay and Karachi during the British era in British India. This train used to operate via Ahmedabad–Palanpur–Marwar–Pali–Jodhpur– Luni– Barmer–Munabao–Khokhrapar–Mirpur Khas–Hyd ...

'' started running between Bombay (now

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

) and Karachi, the route of this train passed through Ahmedabad–Palanpur-Marwar-Pali-Luni–Munabao-Khokhrapar-Mirpur Khas and Hyderabad continued operation till 1947. After the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

the rail links of

Jodhpur State Kingdom of Marwar, also known as the Jodhpur State under the British, was a kingdom in the Marwar region from 1226 to 1818 and a princely state under British rule from 1818 to 1947. It was established in Pali by Rao Siha, possibly a m ...

and Northern Bombay Presidency was disrupted, and divided into the Indian State of

and Pakistan province of

. Due to this, the mainline was separated as Jodhpur–Munabao line from the Indian side and Khokhrapar–Hyderabad line as of Pakistan side, on this purpose the origin of ''Sind Mail'' were shifted to

in India and

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

in Pakistan continued operation between two countries Until 1965, when the outbreak of the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

led to the closure of all passenger train links. During that time, the rail track was bombed and destroyed by the Pakistani fighter jets, and the Bombay–Karachi train ended.How to get to Pakistan
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', 12 May 2017 On 28 June 1976, India and Pakistan signed the rail communication agreement to normalize the relations between two nations after signing the

(2 July 1972) a few months after the end of

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...

, when the bilateral relations had soured after the Indian Army had succeeded in liberating Bangladesh. This agreement forms the basis of running ''

'' also the

Delhi–Lahore Bus The Delhi–Lahore Bus, officially known as Sada-e-Sarhad (Translation: ''Call of the Frontier, hi, सदा ए सरहद; ur, )'', is a passenger bus service connecting the Indian capital of New Delhi, Delhi with the city of Lahore, Pak ...

and

Srinagar–Muzaffarabad Bus The Srinagar–Muzaffarabad Bus ( hi, श्रीनगर मुज़फ़्फ़राबाद बस, ur, ) is a passenger bus service connecting Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kash ...

are based on a separate agreement. On the Indian side, the Jodhpur–Munabao line was totally converted into

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

in the year 2003 and the Indian immigration and customs office developed at railway station for customs checks which are currently carried out. Whereas on the Pakistan side, the Khokhrapar–Hyderabad line was totally re-converted back to the original

and also the railway station was also developed in the year 2006, a few hundred meters from the border, where immigration and customs checks are currently carried out. This enabled both the nations to sign an MoU to reopen the rail link. This was not possible earlier because there would be a change of gauge in between, either at Hyderabad or Mirpur Khas. Prior to 1965, the last Pakistani station was , about 10 kilometers from the border. After gauge conversion of both nations, on 18 February 2006, the rail service of Thar Express was inaugurated on the basis of

and became the second route for connecting both nations after

also the renewable rail communication agreement was regularly extended by both nations and the last extension was from 19 January 2016 to 18 January 2019.

Route and operations

PK Karachi asv2020-02 img54 Cantonment Railway Station

Thar Express runs weekly with two portions. It travels totally around to reach Karachi from Jodhpur with a total average time of 13 hours 5 minutes to cover the entire stretch of Jodhpur−Munabao–Zero Point –Khokhrapar–Hyderabad –Karachi. The entire stretch is covered by broad-gauge diesel locomotives. There are only one major river crossing, the more than 100 year old

Kotri Bridge Kotri Bridge ( ur, ) is a road-rail bridge situated between Kotri and Hyderabad on Indus river in Sindh, Pakistan. History It was opened to traffic on 25 May 1900 and was reconstructed in 1931. It stretches over five spans and the total length ...

over the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

. this river crossing occurs in Pakistan. In this, the first portion of Thar Express which runs at the Indian side are also named as Thar Link Express operates by Jodhpur railway division of the

North Western Railway zone The North Western Railway (abbreviated NWR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Jaipur,Rajasthan with 59,075+ employees, 658+ stations and a route length of more than 5761 km across at least some parts of four ...

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

from (

) through to with the rakes of

ICF coach The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coach was a conventional passenger coach used on the majority of main-line trains in India. The design of the coach was developed by Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, Chennai, India in collaboration with the Sw ...

of Indian Railways and locomotive for an end to end journey in both directions with the following combination, L-SLR-S1-S2-S3-S4-S5-S6-S7-SLR (L – locomotive, SLR Seating cum luggage rake, S – Seating rake). Similarly, the second portion of the Thar Express runs at the Pakistan side from Zero Point through to with the rakes of

Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways ( ur, ) is the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan. Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger servi ...

and locomotive for an end to end journey in both directions with the same combination.

Train schedule

Train departures are as follows: This train service is reliable and the Indian portion of train begins its journey from (

) with time at 01:00 AM

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

covers the distance of without any halts, it reaches at 07:00 AM IST for Indian immigration and customs checks, thereafter leaving the station covers the distance of with crossing

India–Pakistan border The Indo–Pak border or India-Pakistan border is the international boundary that separates India and Pakistan. At its northern end is the Line of Control, which separates Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistani-administered Kashmir; and at ...

and reaches at 02:00 PM PKT for Pakistan immigration and customs checks. During that time the Pakistan portion train arrives on the station for boarding the passengers and leaves at 05:00 PM PKT covers the distance of with halts at and reaches at 12:45 AM PKT. Similarly, on returning the Pakistan portion of train begins its journey from Karachi Cantonment with time at 11:45 PM PKT with halts at Hyderabad Junction and Mirpur Khas Junction reaches Zero Point at 07:20 AM PKT for Pakistan immigration and customs checks. During that time the Indian portion train arrives on the station for boarding the passengers and leaves at 12:00 PM PKT crosses India–Pakistan border and reaches Munabao for Indian Immigration and customs checks, thereafter it leaves at 07:00 PM IST without any halts reaches Bhagat Ki Kothi (Jodhpur) at 11:50 PM IST.Fare Table of Thar Express
Retrieved 20 August 2020

Stations

* (

) * * * * *

References

External links

Photos of Mirpur Khas - Khokhrapar train photos at narrow-gauge.co.uk14889 Thar Link Express
at India Rail Info
14890 Thar Link Express
at India Rail Info

at Pak Information {{India–Pakistan relations India–Pakistan relations International named passenger trains Named passenger trains of India Named passenger trains of Pakistan Rail transport in Rajasthan Railway services introduced in 2006 Transport in Jodhpur Transport in Karachi Transport in Sindh 2006 establishments in India 2006 establishments in Pakistan