The Thar Express (Hindi: थार एक्सप्रेस, Urdu: تھر ایکسپریس, Rajasthani: थार एक्सप्रेस, Sindhi: ٿر ايڪسپريس) was an international passenger train that ran between the Bhagat Ki Kothi a suburban area of Jodhpur in the Indian State of Rajasthan and Karachi Cantonment of Karachi in the Pakistani Province of Sindh.
[1] It's a second train after the Samjhauta Express for direct connectivity between India and Pakistan on the basis of Simla Agreement after the restoring of the Jodhpur–Hyderabad rail route which was closed for 41 years till 2006.
[4][5] During the year 1901, the Sind Mail started running between Bombay (now Mumbai) and Karachi, the route of this train passed through Ahmedabad–Palanpur-Marwar-Pali-Luni–Munabao-Khokhrapar-Mirpur Khas and Hyderabad continued operation till 1947.
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 Jodhpur in India and Hyderabad in Pakistan continued operation between two countries Until 1965, when the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 led to the closure of all passenger train links.
Whereas on the Pakistan side, the Khokhrapar–Hyderabad line was totally re-converted back to the original 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge and also the Zero Point 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.
[13] Train departures are as follows: This train service is reliable and the Indian portion of train begins its journey from Bhagat Ki Kothi (Jodhpur) with time at 01:00 AM IST covers the distance of 325 km (202 mi) without any halts, it reaches Munabao at 07:00 AM IST for Indian immigration and customs checks, thereafter leaving the station covers the distance of 3 km (1.9 mi) with crossing India–Pakistan border and reaches Zero Point at 02:00 PM PKT for Pakistan immigration and customs checks.