ISLAMABAD: The government has allocated a grant of Rs40 billion for the Pakistan Railways (PR) for FY 2020-21 to meet its losses against Rs39 billion allocated in 2019-2020, which was later revised upwards to Rs42 billion, budget documents reveal.
The government has budgeted a total of Rs123.3 billion for the PR for FY 2020-21 against Rs113 billion budgeted in the current fiscal year, showing an increase of around eight percent.
Under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), the government has earmarked Rs24 billion for the next fiscal year against Rs16 billion earmarked for the current fiscal year.
Further, Rs99.3 billion has been allocated to defray salaries and other expenses of the railways' employees. The railways has a huge employees-related expenditure amounting to Rs99.3 billion for the next fiscal year against Rs96 billion for the outgoing year, which was later revised to Rs94 billion.
Operating cost for 2020-21 is estimated at Rs24.22 billion against the revised Rs22.77 billion for the current fiscal year. The railways will spend Rs35.2 billion in terms of employees' retirement benefits against Rs33.37 billion for the current fiscal year, which were later, revised to Rs35.05 billion.
The PR will have to pay Rs182 million for catering to the transfers and postings of its employees. Further, Rs12.426 billion has been budgeted against allowances for the next fiscal year against Rs12.083 billion in the outgoing fiscal year.
An allocation of Rs6 billion has been made for the upgrade of Pakistan Railways existing Main Line-1 (ML-I) and establishment of dry port near Havelian (2018-22) Phase-1(CPEC), Rs2.5 billion for acquisition of land for Railways Corridor from sea port 5.25km to 9.00km and Railway operational land from 12.00km to 14.00km at Gwadar, Rs50 million for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Support Project (CPECSP) at the Ministry of Railways, Rs1.5 billion for preliminary design/drawings for upgradation/rehabilitation of main line (ML1) and establishment of dry port near Havelian under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and hiring of design/drawings vetting consultants, Rs3.25 billion for procurement/manufacture of 820 high capacity bogie freight wagons and 230 passenger coaches, Rs700 million for procurement of 75 Nos (55 Nos 4000- 4500 HP and 20 Nos 2000-2500 HP) diesel electric locomotives (DELs) (2nd revised), Rs2.7 billion for special repair of 100 Nos DE locomotives for improving the reliability/availability of running locomotives, Rs1,000 million for special repair of 600 passenger coaches and 1,200 bogie wagons, Rs330 million for track rehabilitation on Khanpur-Lodhran section, Rs1.5 billion for operationalization of train on existing KCR alignment, Rs300 million for revival of Karachi Circular Railways (KCR)-Phase-2, Rs450 million for rehabilitation of track between Sama Satta-Bahawalnagar on Sama Satta-Amruka Section and Rs400 million for rehabilitation of track between Rehmani Nagar-Bakrani Road on Dadu-Habib Kot section (Sukkur Division Ph-4).
According to the Economic Survey 2019-20, during the first eight months of fiscal year 2020 (July-Feb), gross earnings grew by 8.4 percent and amounted to Rs36,916.85 million compared with Rs34,066.12 million during the same period last year.
During July-February FY2020, the number of carried passengers decreased to 39.4 million against 39.9 million during the corresponding period last year, representing a decline of 1.20 percent.
Passenger traffic (km million), freight carried (tones million), and freight (tones km million) declined by 3.54 percent, 0.56 percent, and 0.07 percent respectively.
Total working expenses of the corporation have increased by 19 percent during July-Feb FY2020 over the same period last year, and remained Rs41.05 billion compared to Rs34.383 billion during the same period of last year.
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