Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour has said that the railway will come out of the crisis within 4 to 5 months after receiving the package approved by the Federal Cabinet. He said this while addressing a news conference soon after presiding over a meeting of Railway officials here on Saturday.
He said the main cause of the crisis faced by the department is deminishing of its goods service as income from passengers' service is not its main source of revenue. He said the situation would improve only after rehabilitation of cargo service which would be carried out on top priority as soon as the resources are made available by the government.
The Minister said that the railway is facing shortage of locomotives and efforts are being made to get spare parts from abroad to repair the faulty engines. The minister said that the railway is the backbone of country's economy but proper attention was not paid to it in the past compared to roads and motorways which remained the main focus of the previous governments. He said that the Railway authorities have signed an agreement with Chinese company for development and improvement of its infrastructure but it has been challenged in the court and the case is in pending.