With Pakistan Railways (PR) loss feared to hit record high in 2022-23, PR Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Tuesday announced multiple measures related to fare increase, lease of land and others to bring down the projected deficit.
Addressing a press conference at railways headquarters, he said the floods caused Rs525 billion loss to the PR. Rupee devaluation and the oil bill are also the major factors behind the loss, said the minister, announcing increase in the freight fare as one of the initiatives to raise the revenue. The fares of freight trains, he said, will be rationalized with the competing transport. Currently, he said, the PR freight fares are negligible compared to the road transport which, he added, would be raised to the logical level.
The oil-bill for 2021-22 was Rs20 billion and it was expected to touch Rs36 billion at the end of the current financial year due to increase in diesel prices at international market, he said. The last year deficit of the PR was Rs47.5 billion and it will face direct addition of Rs16 billion alone in term of oil-bill if the prices remained stagnant at global market, he said. Therefore, he said, the PR was left with no option but to take tough monitory decisions for its survival.
“We want to lease out the PR land for private commercial operation and for this we will approach the Supreme Court.” As the apex court in 2021 ruled that the railways land would not be allowed to be leased out or transferred to any private person or employees, but only to be used for operational purposes, the minister sought permission of land leasing and withdrawal of the top court order. “We will request the Supreme Court to review its decision as it is the matter of the PR survival.”
He said the PR earned Rs2.7 billion from its lands in 2021-22 and the income could be three times high if the SC allowed the PR to lease out land for at least 10 to 15 years period. Also, he maintained, the lease option was viable in a sense that the PR lacked capacity to look after its over 175,000 acres of land in all over the country. He said the railways was restoring passenger, express and freight trains operation which was badly affected due to floods. So far, he informed, five trains become operational and the efforts were on to bring all others on track as soon as possible.
The railways management, he said, made the decision to allow the internet companies to use its land for laying fibre optics and share part of their revenue with the PR. However, he said, the decision will be conditional with the approval of the federal cabinet, which, he hoped, will be done accordingly. He said the railways will allow the private housing societies to construct under passes on track on depositing Rs100 million in PR account. The PR headquarters, he said, will made the permission for under-pass if found feasible after the amount would be deposited.
He said the Quetta-Taftan track became fully operational as the breaches on over 104 places were fixed. He said the track will be modernize with the help of the traders. He said the railways sought help of the security agencies for making operational the Sibbi-Harnai rail route. The revival of train operation on the track will be a life-changer for local population, he said, adding the security institutions had assured the PR of their full cooperation. Rafique, who also serves as minister of aviation, said the government had developed a plan for revival of the PIA and it will be shared with the nation in next week.
