Railways’ revenue accelerates 46% in six months

Corporation earns Rs41b, confident of meeting full-year target of Rs80b

LAHORE:

Pakistan Railways announced on Monday that it had managed to earn Rs41 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year, an amount much greater than the corresponding period of last year.

In the first six months of the previous fiscal year, the railways had reported revenues of Rs28 billion, which reflected that its revenues rose 46% in July-December of the current fiscal year.

According to figures shared by the railways administration, out of the revenue of Rs41 billion, earnings from passenger trains were recorded at Rs24 billion whereas the freight sector managed to earn Rs11 billion. Other sectors of the corporation added around Rs5.5 billion to the total revenue generation.

At present, Pakistan Railways is operating 96 passenger trains, up from the previous year when 86 trains were running. Similarly, during the previous year, on average it operated 3.75 freight trains while the number reached seven freight trains this year.

Railways management said that the whopping 46% rise in revenues was the result of right utilisation of resources. It elaborated that for the increase in revenues, neither any extra money was spent, nor they asked for help from the government.

The management emphasised that the delay in payment of salaries to employees “has now been controlled and once work on the Mainline-I (ML-I) project kicks off, things will be more streamlined”.

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For the current fiscal year 2023-24, the revenue target for Pakistan Railways has been set at Rs80 billion, higher by Rs10 billion over previous fiscal year’s target of Rs70 billion.

In FY23, it earned Rs62.5 billion, falling short of the target by Rs7.5 billion. However, this year, the management stressed, with the ongoing pace of revenue generation, they expected to achieve the Rs80 billion goal at least a month before the end of fiscal year in June 2024.

Owing to inflationary pressures, led by high fuel costs, Pakistan Railways has increased its fares, both for passenger and freight segments. This has helped the cash-strapped corporation to fetch better revenues in the first six months – July-December, fueling expectations of meeting the goal in the remaining period.

The management, however, did not share the operational cost and other figures.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2024.

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