The number of accidents, losses, subsidies and expenditure of Pakistan Railways (PR) increased significantly during the five-year tenure of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) government despite an improvement in revenue.
Official sources revealed to Business Recorder that PR losses reached around Rs 37 billion in the current fiscal year 2017-18 and are likely to cross Rs 40 billion by end-June.
PR losses were Rs 30.50 billion in 2012-13, Rs 32.52 in 2013-14, Rs 27.24 billion in 2014-15, Rs 26.99 billion in 2015-16 and Rs 40.7 billion in 2016-17. However sources said that the losses are expected to reach around Rs 42 billion by end of 2017-18.
Railways revenue was Rs 18.078 billion in 2012-13, Rs 22.805 billion in 2013-14, Rs 31.927 billion in 2014-15, Rs 36.58 billion in 2015-16 and Rs 40.083 billion in 2016-17. But at the same, subsidies increased every year as it was Rs 33.35 in 2012-13, Rs 33.6 billion in 2013-14, Rs 37 billion in 2014-15, Rs 37 billion in 2015-16, Rs 37 billion in 2016-17 and Rs 40 billion projected for 2017-18.
PR officials said that they are expecting to generate over Rs 50 billion revenue by the end of 2017-18 due to good budgetary allocations as well as timely releases which helped in meeting financing requirements for developing infrastructure, procuring locomotives and improving other services. The government earmarked Rs 42.9 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the current fiscal year 2017-18 of which Rs 19.3 billion has been released so far.
The government has allocated Rs 125.5 billion for PR for 2018-19 including Rs 39 billion for development schemes and Rs 86.5 billion to defray salaries and other expenses of railway's employees. A grant of Rs 37 billion has been budgeted for Railways to meet deficit against Rs 40 billion for the outgoing financial year.
Railways revenue was Rs 18 billion in 2012-13 which would cross Rs 50 billion by 2017-18, but at the same time Railways expenditures were Rs 48.58 billion in 2012-13 which reached Rs 80.93 billion 2016-17.
Officials attributed the increase in Railways revenue to the increase in the number of locomotives, introduction of new freight and passenger trains like Green Line, Parcel Express and trains' punctuality.
Out of the total budget of PR amounting to Rs 90 billion for current financial year 2017-18 (consisting of Rs 50 billion revenue receipts and Rs 40 billion subsidy/financial assistance), funds to the tune of Rs 55.825 billion are for salaries/pensions only. The loss can be controlled to some extent by generating additional revenue receipts and minimizing expenditure not directly related to train operations like TA/DA and utilities.
However, a huge chunk of Rs 55.825 billion is likely to be spent on mandatory payments of salaries/ pensions. This expenditure, which is 62% approximately of the total revenue budget of Rs 90 billion, cannot be controlled. Of the remaining Rs 34.175 billion, a sizeable sum of Rs 13.375 billion has been allocated for operational fuel during 2017-2018. This expenditure also is beyond its control as already many upward revisions in the price of fuel have taken place during the current financial year.
Sources said that even passenger coaches/wagons were not being repaired as per requirement due to lower allocations before June, 2013. However, the position substantially improved as PML-N government allocated additional funds for repair & up-gradation/refurbishment of coaches. As a result, the availability of operational coaches has increased from 972 in 2013 to 1248 due to management effort and increased spending on up-gradation of coaches.
PR has embarked upon modernization and capacity expansion programme under which transportation capacity of PR is being increased by employing higher speed and higher payload trains.
Focus has been shifted towards freight sector which is a profitable venture. In June 2013, 80 percent of revenue came from passengers and only 11 percent from freight whereas in 2018, 53 percent revenue was from passengers and 35 percent from freight.
For the first time 55 new freight specific locomotives of 4000 to 4500 HP have been added to the existing fleet. The newly inducted locomotives improved the share of freight earnings.
Introduction of new passenger reservation system including e-ticketing for passenger and outsourcing of commercial management of passenger trains under Public Private Partnership (PPP) also resulted in generating additional revenue.
Terminal facilities are being improved by introducing modern loading/ unloading facilities to curtail loading / un- loading time. As a result of these initiatives 12 freight trains are now originating from Karachi Port against only one train per day in 2013.
Officials claimed that punctuality of passenger trains increased from 42 percent in 2013 to around 77 percent in 2018 and in some areas around 90 percent. Further 1055 acres of land has so far been retrieved from encroachers which was 3125 acres as on June 2013.
According to Railways Ministry officials a total of 295 trains' accidents occurred from 2013 to 2018, with around 120 fatalities and over 470 injured. About 157 trains' accidents occurred at unmanned level crossings during this period.
There are a total of 3389 level crossings on entire Railway system including 1514 manned and 1875 unmanned level crossings. The Ministry has estimated a cost of Rs 25 billion for up-gradation of unmanned level crossings across the country, including 550 vulnerable and 143 most vulnerable unmanned level crossings. In joint survey with district governments 436 vulnerable and 75 most vulnerable unmanned level crossings were identified in Punjab, 45 and 30 in Sindh, 37 and 6 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 32 and 32 in Balochistan.