Pakistan railways increases freight traffic

The entity is relying on freight traffic to generate badly needed revenue.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) have restored freight trains operation to the extent of two trains on a daily basis from Karachi port to up-country, with hopes of increasing this to 8-10 trains by the end of the current financial year.

This particular step has been taken to improve overall performance and the financial position of the government entity.

According to PR here on Friday, as part of the measures taken by the management, 15 GMU-30 locomotives are being inducted. These locomotives will generate revenue of Rs4.416 million per annum through transportation of oil.

In case of less than expected oil traffic, the department will focus on operation of container trains which will generate revenue of Rs3.8 billion per annum.

A project for rehabilitation of 27 HGMU-30 is also in progress and it is expected that five locomotives will be rolled-out and will be available by June 2014. After that, two locomotives per month will be rehabilitated and inducted into freight operations.

PR also said that a separate project called “Special Repair of 150 Running locomotives” was approved in 2012-13 under the Public Sector Development Programme, which will decrease the burden of locomotive maintenance on revenue budget.

Revenue earning during July 2013 has increased to Rs178.724.

The increase in earnings is mainly due to the reduction in fares of passenger trains. Officials said that punctuality of trains has been improved by 3% in July 2013, and is being constantly observed.

Efforts are also underway to improve the punctuality further with availability of newer and better locomotives.

All non-productive expenses have been stopped and expenditures are being incurred in accordance with available resources.

Incurrence of expenditures other than salary/pensions, fuel and utilities are subject to cash release.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2013.

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