Railways to get Rs6.1bn next week

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) will receive Rs 6.1 billion next week to overcome its current crisis. This was stated by Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour.

Exclusively talking with Business Recorder on Tuesday, he said that the government has decided to overcome Railway crisis and Rs 6.1 billion for rehabilitation of locomotives would be released to PR in the first week of January 2012. The amount would be arranged through a consortium of commercial banks, and PR would not only pay the loan but would also pay the interest, he added.

The Minister said that there "is no possibility of privatising" PR as no one is ready to accept it with current deficit. Similarly, PR has 85,000 employees and 1.4 million pensioners. All these people would be on the road if it is privatised. "I am also not in favour of privatisinge PR but attention is required to overcome the current crisis", he added.

He said: "It seems difficult in the current situation to achieve estimated revenue target of Rs 12 billion for the current fiscal year against Rs 18 billion of last year as only 106 locomotives are available with PR to run train service in the country". He added that 400 locomotives are immediately required to run the system properly.

The Minister linked betterment of Railway with waiving Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) rules. "All countries are ready to provide us locomotives, but PPRA rules remain the main hurdle in purchase transactions," he said. He urged the government to waive PPRA rules for purchase of locomotives so as to facilitate the necessary purchases as early as possible. Without provision of locomotives, it is difficult to run the Railways in profit.

He said that down payment for 150 locomotives has already been made. However, due to PPRA rules, the process has been halted. The Cabinet approved Rs 11.1 billion for PR, but the Ministry of Finance has not released a single penny of the approved amount, he added.