Assistance Package: Bilour says crisis in railways to end in four months
He said that the situation would improve only after the rehabilitation of the cargo service.
KARACHI:
Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour has said that Pakistan Railways (PR) will come out of its present crisis within four to five months after receiving the assistance package approved by the federal cabinet.
Addressing a news conference after presiding over a meeting of PR officials here on Saturday, he said that the main cause of the crisis was PR’s diminishing income from its cargo service, as the income from the passenger service was not its main source of revenue.
He said that the situation would improve only after the rehabilitation of the cargo service, which would be carried out on a priority basis as soon as it received much-needed resources from the government.
The minister said that PR was facing a shortage of locomotives and efforts were being made to get spare parts from foreign countries. The minister said that PR was the backbone of the country’s economy. “Proper attention hasn’t been paid to it in the past unlike roads and motorways that remained the focus of attention under previous governments,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2011.
Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour has said that Pakistan Railways (PR) will come out of its present crisis within four to five months after receiving the assistance package approved by the federal cabinet.
Addressing a news conference after presiding over a meeting of PR officials here on Saturday, he said that the main cause of the crisis was PR’s diminishing income from its cargo service, as the income from the passenger service was not its main source of revenue.
He said that the situation would improve only after the rehabilitation of the cargo service, which would be carried out on a priority basis as soon as it received much-needed resources from the government.
The minister said that PR was facing a shortage of locomotives and efforts were being made to get spare parts from foreign countries. The minister said that PR was the backbone of the country’s economy. “Proper attention hasn’t been paid to it in the past unlike roads and motorways that remained the focus of attention under previous governments,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2011.