Package for Railways to improve its performance: Bilour

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Monday expressed the hope that Rs10.2 billion bale out package announced by the government for the railways will improve its performance.

Talking to APP he said "Rs10.2 billion package announced by the Pakistan Railways will improve railways' efficiency within five to six months."

He said that Pakistan Railways performance would have been much better if the government had given an amount of Rs5 billion demanded by the Pakistan Railways in January.

The minister said that Pakistan Railways was facing dilapidated situation, however, the efforts are underway to improve its performance.

Bilour said unfortunately Railways was ignored and no attention was paid on the improvement of this public utility service.

He said most of the railway fleet including passenger coaches, freight wagons and locomotives have been outdated and the whole institution needs a massive restructuring.

He said work on dualization of Lodhran-Sahiwal rail track has been completed while dualization of Raiwind-Sahiwal Section is underway.

He said that the completion of this project would help reduce travel time between Lahore and Karachi significantly.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011