ISLAMABAD: Around 81,568 employees are on pay roll of Pakistan Railways against the sanctioned strength of about 95,000.
"It was not correct that railway employees were performing trains operation duties in shifts", said an official in the Ministry of Railways while talking to APP here on Wednesday.
He said that their duties are of technical nature and are being performed only by the qualified persons, not by any other person.
Giving details, he said, at present, 6390 employees are working in Pakistan Railways Police and were assigned the duties of security and safety of Railway assets i.e. railway installations, key points, railway coaches, railway track and railway Stations etc.
He said that they undergo specific training courses to meet with the security challenges whereas employees of Pakistan Railways are provided different types of training for relating to train operation and are not suitable/eligible for performing security related duties which is prime responsibility of the Railway Police.
The official said that there is no proposal under consideration of the government to import new locomotives from China and no amount has been allocated for this purpose.
Pakistan Railways was not planning to shift Railways Headquarter Office Lahore to Islamabad as there are three major organizational units are working at there, he added.
He said the control rooms of Pakistan Railways are equipped with instruments to monitor the train movement, however the installation of most modern tracking system based on latest technology is under installation at the main places which control the train movement over the system.
The locations are Peshawar Division Railway Control Office, Rawalpindi Division Railway Control Office, Lahore Division Railway Control Office, Central Control Office, Headquarter Office, Lahore, Multan Division Railway Control Office, Sukkur Division Railway Control Office, Karachi Division Railway Control Office and Quetta Division Railway Control Office.
He made it clear that the present government was taking several steps to reduce the losses included reduction in fares resulted into attracting extra passengers towards rail that consequently increased the passenger earning as well as other coaching.
Availability of locomotives in freight pool has been enhanced from 08 locomotives to 25 locomotives on daily basis that generated activity and made it possible to start three to five freight trains, Karachi port daily for up country, he added.
He said that punctuality of passenger trains has been improved from 10 percent to 55 percent. HSD Oil reserve was limited for two days which has been enhanced to 12 days to streamline the operation of trains.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.