PRACS reluctant to take over locomotives rehabilitation project

Says it lacks technical expertise, necessary equipment to complete undertaking.

LAHORE: Pakistan Railways Advisory and Consultancy Services (PRACS) has expressed inability to take over a project for the rehabilitation of 96 locomotives for Pakistan Railways (PR). It has cited lack of expertise and equipment to successfully finish the undertaking as the reasons for its reluctance.

PRACS Managing Director Aftab Memon wrote a letter to the Pakistan Railways chairman a few weeks ago to decline the undertaking. He told railway authorities that PRACS lacked trained engineers and necessary equipment, and requested that the responsibility for the project be shifted back to the railways.

After the letter was delivered, a number of meetings between Memon and General Manager PR Operations Junaid Quraishi were arranged to address Memon’s reservations; however, to date, not all issues have been settled.

It is pertinent to note that PR is using PRACS, its ancillary, in order to secure a loan worth Rs6.1 billion; the loan will be used to overhaul 96 locomotives, which are currently off the tracks and parked at different railway sheds. No financial institute was ready to extend the loan to Pakistan Railways directly, purportedly due to widespread mismanagement and financial mishandling in the state-owned rail transport service. In order to maintain transparency, PR had assured PRACS that the latter would control disbursement of the loan, after which PRACS had agreed to the arrangement.

“The PRACS MD has now presented some issues to railway authorities, including lack of capacity; but we are trying to address these issues,” PR Public Relations Director Zubair Shaffi Ghauri told The Express Tribune.

“The general manager has fixed many of the reservations,” he added. “We admit that PRACS has fewer infrastructure facilities than the railways, but we will provide them with manpower and equipment to be ready for the undertaking,” he said.

PRACS hired the services of some retired railways officials for the locomotives rehabilitation project a year ago at lucrative compensation packages. Sources say that a year has passed, and not a single penny has been transferred to the PRACS account despite several reassurances from lending banks. PRACS is currently paying millions of rupees monthly to these officers, without receiving any work-related services from them.

Railways and PRACS officials have no idea when the money will be transferred. Meanwhile, the condition of locomotives in operation is deteriorating with each passing day. PR is currently operating with a fleet of around 110 locomotives, which are used to service around 200 passenger and 10 goods trains. Ideally, PR needs over 500 locomotives to run smoothly, and at full capacity, in both segments of its operations.

Railways officials believe that more trains could be pulled off the tracks due to the loan issue. As the issue stretches out with no end in sight, and given a minimum one year procurement period for locomotives, they fear the Pakistan Railways will soon be crippled to operate at very restricted capacity.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2012.