PR deficit stands at Rs12b, NA panel told

Officials say ML-1 documentary procedure ‘complete’

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Railways officials on Wednesday assured the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Railways that the documentary procedure in the ML-1 (Main Line-1) project was complete, saying their job was done.

Chairing the body’s sitting, the committee chairman Muhammad Moeen Wattoo expressed dissatisfaction with the “stalled progress” in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) ML-1 project, regretting that the project has paused where it stood still nine years ago.

“How do we justify the current status of the project to the people?” he asked.

The railways officials said the documentary procedure and other formalities in the CPEC's mega-project on their part have been wrapped up, adding they were told that the matter would be resolved if a call was made to the Chinese authorities.

“All the documentation work from us is complete."

‘Inaccurate deficit statistics’

Briefing the meeting on PR’s deficit, Federal Minister for Railways Azam Swati told the panel that he would write a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) pleading him to advise the lower courts against issuing stay orders against the railways.

The railways minister rebuked the officials of the railways for presenting “inaccurate statistics” of the current deficit, directing them to correct the figures, which were erroneously stated to be Rs7 billion while in reality, it was Rs12 billion.

Sharing details of the annual report, the federal minister that PR was well on its way to being transformed into a profitable entity for the first time in fifty years. However, he pointed out the caveats in achieving the task saying optimising the PR’s profits would be possible if the pandemic was kept under control and track accidents did not hamper its development.

He further added that he was bringing amendments in the Railway Act to bring about major reforms in the institution.

“The Dargai track will be restored from March 31 after a significant investment of Rs150 million,” the railways minister informed. “We ran freight train to Turkey and a Safari train, which was also appreciated by the ambassadors.”

Azam Swati went on to say that a state-of-the-art terminal has also been constructed near Karachi following which the containers will be unloaded from the ship and loaded directly.

“More than 160 railway stations will be switched to solar energy,” he added while sharing details of the government’s ongoing efforts to overhaul the institution.