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American-made General Electric locomotive engines have just arrived from the US for reviving Pakistan Railways

American-made General Electric locomotive engines have just arrived from the United States for reviving the Pakistan Railways (PR). Seven out of a total of 55 trains, at Rs570 million each, have reached Karachi. They will be purposed for transporting coal from Port Qasim to the Jamshoro Power Plant, Sindh and Sahiwal Power Plant, Punjab with the remainder of the fleet set to be shipped here by June 2017. This news is on track with the speed of economic development in the country, especially with regard to the boost that energy projects are receiving. However, one questions whether railways are really the transportation mode of the future. For a dwindling company like the Pakistan Railways, spending more money is imprudent at this time. A deficit of Rs28.3 billion currently exists; its expenses are Rs64.23 billion while earnings are Rs35.97 billion. The recent 12.6 per cent increase in earnings needs no hoopla about it considering the gargantuan deficit.

To revive the PR is like resuscitating a nonagenarian vegetative patient. The figures are large, but one wonders about efficiency and quality of life or sustainability, in the case of our railways. Importing well-manufactured trains from the United States to replace the obsolete and ailing trains is one thing, but there is a lack of quality infrastructure on which to run the new trains. The railway system is highly inefficient and prone to accidents, often owing to negligence and poor implementation of safety measures. It is not all that rare for a train passenger — frequent or occasional — to have experienced a train accident due to a lack of safety; an example is the fact that children are freely able to roam on train tracks in remote areas across the two provinces of Sindh and Punjab, even making a game out of who can jump off the track the fastest as a train approaches. The new American trains were required to replace the dilapidated ones, but this is only one of the factors in improving and reviving the Pakistan Railways.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2017.

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