A big aid of Islamabad has helped in recovery of Pakistan Railways. Will it be used to pick up the necessary steps to get on track again?
The current condition of Pakistan Railways is very worst. Due to lack of rail engines and rail cars to run its operations, it has come to the gyre of downfall.
Current Challenges to Railways System
The infrastructure of Pakistan Railways is old-fashioned and its conditions are very wretched. Due to these conditions, it is difficult for Pakistan railways to even run its cargo wing.
Outdated infrastructure and unreliable schedules have made the conditions even worse and clogged the people from choosing for this insecure method of travel in Pakistan.
How Much Aid expected?
According to Railways Minister, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, approximately Rs1,000 billion is required to boost the standard of quality of domestic rail service at Pakistan Railways.
Pakistan Railways has succeeded in getting budget shares worth Rs77 billion and Rs41 billion in the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively.
Where this Aid will be Used?
Out of this amount of budget, Pakistan Railways has been spending a big amount on the purchase of new cargo and passenger trains and remaining on the repairing of old engines and for the development of the system.
Current Situation
At present, the Pakistan Railways claim of having attained the short-term targets it has set for itself. One of these is the setting up of an independent railways board, including technical expertise in railways.
Pakistan Railway was being run through an executive committee of the railway board which has no authorized basis since year 2000. The committee was made by Javed Ashraf Qazi, the railways minister in Musharraf’s government.
Current profit/loss of the System
Spokesman of Pakistan Railways, Rauf Tahir, states the report on the targets succeeded over the last two years. Some details are:
The annual revenue that was Rs18 billion in 2012-13 increased to Rs 32billion in 2014-15, it was a record rise of 72 percent in two years.
In the year 2013-14, the expected losses which were fixed at Rs33.05 billion came out to be around Rs32.05 billion. During this year Pakistan Railways paid Rs5 billion to the retired employees in the form of pension cheques, General Provident (GP) fund and paid the dues to the oil and power sectors.
Otherwise, the losses could have been taken down to Rs27.05 billion.During the session of 2014-15, the real losses were Rs27.025 billion against the expected loss of Rs37 billion.
According to the spokesperson, Rauf Thair, a considerable rise in the number of cargo trains and recoveries from PSO, food department, postal service, and Pakistan Army, will enhanced the economic status of Pakistan Railways.
