LAHORE – Pakistan Railways has planned to repair as many as 200 locomotives in a period of one year as department has almost managed Rs10 billion in this regard. Among these 200 locomotives, 96 will be repaired from the recently received bank loan of Rs6 billion while rest of locomotives would be overhauled by spending Rs4 billion being generated through different private companies.
Pakistan Railways General Manager Rana Saeed Akhtar expressed threes remarks while giving exclusive interview to daily TheNation. He revealed that Railways’ existing fleet is comprising of just 110 locomotives and shortage of them considered to be main reason behind ongoing PR crisis. He opined that after the injection of these 200 locomotives, it is hoped that PR would be able to stand on its own feet.
He revealed that National Logistic Cell (NLC), Premier Mercantile Services, Qasim International Container Terminal, Lahore Chamber of Commerce, Dawood Khel Cement, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and other notable companies are keen to invest on the repair of locomotives and the negotiations in this regard are underway. The agreements, he said, will be transparent and would prove to be win-win situation for both Railways and investors.
Rana Saeed Akhtar further said that free hand in decision-making would help the PR management to overcome different crises and would ultimately make PR a revenue generating organisation in a short span of time. He said that Railways has decided not to rely on government bailout packages. Instead, management has decided to bring private sector on board to invest.
According to PR GM, as outsourcing, restructuring and public-private partnership are being practiced all over the world, enabling institutions to overcome losses. It is to be noted that incumbent government has reappointed Rana Saeed Akhtar as General Manager Operation on March 2011 as proved himself as an honest official and has had rich experience in restructuring and privatisation of PR since he has been associated with all initiatives taken in this regard since 1995.
While remembering PR glorious time, PR GM said that once Railways had its own budget and finance department till 1970s. Dissolution this department and then merger of budget with national kitty started downfall of PR, said Saeed Akhtar.
Proposing his plan to bring Railways’ lost glory back, he stressed the need of a national transport policy. He said common perception is that powerful transport mafia wants decline of PR for obvious reasons. He maintained that successive governments’ experiences with the organisation during last 40 years led the colonial legacy inching towards collapse.
He was of the view that Pakistan Railways could be put back on track subject to the condition of developing more loyalty, thrill and a spirit of competitiveness among different ranks of the department to cope with mounting challenges, he said adding that recently PR had acquired loan of Rs 6 billion and started repairing locomotives, soon the change would come. The repairing of these locomotives is part of our fleet renewal programme, a key element of progress towards restoration of Railways, said GM.
He urged that the government – a major stakeholder in rail, road and air transport – needed to design an integrated transport policy where goods could be enlisted for economical carriage.
“Despite losses, the rail network provides a comparatively safe, affordable and reliable mode of transportation to a significant portion of the country’s population. However, this cheap mode of transportation has not been considered seriously till now. The current PR management is now taking on board private companies who would repair 100 locomotives in coming day, thus a full-fledge fright operation will be resumed very soon.
A state-of-the-art business train, as a result of public-private partnership, is going to start its operation between Lahore and Karachi on February 3, followed by Shalimar Express on February 7 while induction of four more business trains is in pipeline. He claimed that doubling of rail track from Karachi to Lahore would be completed in 2012.  As Pakistan Railways network has a total of 945 stations, approximately six kilometres apart, to meet operational, safety and communication requirements, this asset should not be lost though 70 per cent track, on the right bank of Indus River and in Balochistan, was non-operational. He hoped that on one day this non-operational track would come into operation after the transit trade agreements with India and China as both countries need this track, he added.
Talking about one of the reasons of PR failure, GM Rana Saeed Akhtar said that unlike Highway management, the government wanted the PR to spend on infrastructure including repair and maintenance as well as running the operation of trains.
“Till 1970s, Pakistan Railways was a self-sustaining organisation run by an autonomous four-member Railway Board. The chairman of the PR was also appointed from one of board members. But after 70, the government merged its budget in national budget and made dysfunctional its own finance department, he said adding that from that day, Railways started its journey towards collapse.  During Mushrraf period, though the army government introduced discipline and initiated actions against the corrupt officers but unfortunately a legal process had not been adopted by the former government and resultantly those corrupt officers came back into organisation with the help of the civil courts after the departure of army rulers, he regretted.
He however, admitted that corruption was also a problem but it could be reduced by outsourcing trains and with the help of private sector as this practice is being successfully done in other counties. The investor would make solid efforts to check the corruption, he said. He said that PR has had 80 per cent capacity in passenger and cargo sectors as compared to the road network but today the situation is quite opposite. The result is that PR monopoly is challenged and as a result the traditional system bound to blow up.
He further said that the closing of trains is not meant the decrease in expenses as all the staff remained on duty after suspension of so many trains. He hoped that these suspended trains would be restored soon.
The positive impact of this success would be felt after a year or so, added Saeed Akhtar.
He said while adopting these steps, he sees no reason the utility would not become a profitable one, PR GM Operation Rana Saeed Akhtar concluded.
Javid Iqbal contributed.