Railways to overcome its deficit this year: Sheikh Rasheed

Minister invites investors as state-owned entity begins journey to profitability

LAHORE: Pakistan Railways will overcome its deficit this year, said a confident Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, adding that the state-owned entity will now seek private investment to upgrade its infrastructure and sort out land issues.

Rasheed, the newly-appointed minister for railways, said expenses of the public sector enterprise will also be reduced by 15%, and focus will be made on freight trains to increase revenue.

Railways currently faces a deficit of Rs37 billion as induction of new trains and high expenses take toll on the entity's revenue. With costs running high, and several Railways' assets unable to add to the company's bottom line, the state-owned entity has run into losses for years now.

However, Rasheed said Railways would now be open for investment by the private sector with special focus to be made on attracting overseas investors.

"We will make railways a deficit-free entity this year," Ahmad said during his maiden press conference as minister. "I invite the private sector to invest in different ventures so that both parties can benefit in the long run."

"I have already asked authorities to cut down the total electricity cost by Rs1 billion from the present Rs2.5 billion," he said.

Rasheed added that while the entity will look to cut operational cost, it will continue to induct new trains and focus on expansion.



"We are going to add two new trains to the network," he said. "These trains will run between Rawalpindi-Mianwali and Rawalpindi-Lahore junctions from September 15."

He added that he will personally monitor the up-gradation work on the 56-km long track near Jhelum, a project that comes under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Once complete, it will reduce the travel time of the Lahore-Rawalpindi journey to three hours.

He also said that in order to increase revenue the number of freight trains will be increased by 20%. "Railways' outdated wagons will be auctioned," he said. "We will try to make the Risalpur factory functional once again so that Pakistan becomes self-sufficient in manufacturing coaches."

Railways owns a huge amount of land but it is either been encroached or has not been used commercially. "I would like the Railways police to free up the encroached land (approximately 4,000 acres) so we can start utilising it for improvement," he said.



Rasheed also announced multi-story apartments for railways staff under prime minister's initiative of providing 5 million low-income housing units. He invited the private sector to present proposals.

Land issues

Railways has five prime land sites available for hotels, 1,000 sites for petrol pumps and many others for commercial plazas. "We are also opening up the entire railways for advertising which includes its stations, trains and 14,000 bridges," he said. "I will personally supervise freight and advertising as both of them have the capacity to generate hefty revenue."

As a major chunk of railways' earnings go under the pay and pensions head, the minister said that the company is not in a position to pay such a huge amount. "We will ask the federal government to pay the pensions of railways workers as the corporation is not in a position to pay billions of rupees annually."

He further said that the up-gradation process of different railway stations is under way and 30 new stations will be upgraded soon.

He also suggested railways to convert to standard gauge from the double gauge for better connectivity. "The entire railways around the globe has shifted to the standard gauge unlike India and Pakistan. If this happens, then Pakistan Railways will have more opportunities to improve its infrastructure and connectivity with the world."