Finance ministry approves Rs10.2b grant for Pakistan Railways

Railways to get Rs4b from PSDP for track maintenance, Rs6.1b through banking consortium for locomotive maintenance.


Express August 05, 2011

KARACHI: The Finance Ministry has approved a grant of Rs10.2 billion rupees for Pakistan Railways, to bail out the public sector enterprise and make it effective again, Express 24/7 reported on Friday.

Sources said the ministry approved the grant after senior government officials intervened.

Four billion rupees will be provided to Pakistan Railways from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the maintenance of railway tracks and Rs6.1 billion will be provided through a banking consortium for the repair and maintenance of locomotives.

Earlier, the finance ministry had refused to release the funds until the railways presented a clear plan to spend the money.

Pakistan Railways, the country’s only rail service provider, is passing through one of the worst financial crises in its history. The federal cabinet had approved a Rs25 billion bailout package in December 2010. In June, the finance ministry had promised it would release the funds in July, but has yet to do so.

(Read: The state of Pakistan Railways)

The Railways currently only meets 20% of its operating expenses from its ticket sales and other revenues. It loses approximately Rs36 billion a year.

(Read: The state of Pakistan Railways - II)

COMMENTS (9)

Malik | 12 years ago | Reply

The government is killing us, I can see all the TAX payers are bleeding but they are frozen. Let’s hope (again), that that some money will be used for development. May Ministry people got enlightenment and do something honestly in rest of their life. Some ideas that they can implement in order to enhance their capacity and retain (too many) redundant workers, if they are honest. 1. Improve Quality of Service and facilities 2. Increase frequency of Long route services 3. Introduce new partners for short route and increase competition with good regulations. 4. Introduce new tracks, if possible different from conventional which heavy maintenance. 5. Outsourced services such as cleaning, kitchen, railway stations, shops etc. 6. Many more

Good luck. Remember Journey through train is most safe and pleasure ride.

Secrecy | 12 years ago | Reply

I don't understand why cannot we learn from idea. I believe that we should give a detail thought to Indian reforms for Railway; that was indeed a massive turn around.

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