Raising steam

Across the sub-continent and much of Africa, the railways are a colonial legacy. Few new lines have been built anywhere in the world since whoever was the colonial power upped and left, and some rolling stock dating from the period is still in use. At Independence in 1947, there were 8,122kms of track, which has grown to 11,881 today — a respectable increase. As of 2015 there were 78,031 employees, a figure that will have increased and the entire enterprise is in deep trouble and has been for many years. Much of the trouble is infrastructure oriented — those of a nervous disposition should not read any of the reports on bridges in the network produced in the last decade — but money is the biggest problem.

There is a lot of inheritance going on in the early days of the new government, and Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said in a briefing on Thursday, August 23 that the Pakistan Railways was currently carrying a debt of Rs37-40 billion that was the legacy of the previous government, which had been at pains to point out that its management of the railways was above reproach. Debts of this size do not spring up like mushrooms overnight. The minister also said that yearly expenditure was Rs9 billion but he gave no detail as to the breakdown of that figure. So strapped for cash is the entity that the minister is willing to rent out the railway tracks — though just who or what would want to take up the option is unclear. There are ‘20-25 acres of land’ — surely an underestimate — that are ripe for development by private enterprises but again who is going to put up the cash?

Quite sensibly the minister said to forget the bullet trains — he has advocated them in the past — and concentrate on fixing the trains we have got and upgrading and straightening out the lines already in existence. He also said he would not tolerate corruption — having done so in the past. His chances of beating corruption? Probably zero. Back to square one, then. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2018.

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