Pakistan Railways

Presented by Ahsan Zaffar

Annum Naeem

Daniyal Aziz

Faiza Hussain

Sarmad Imdad

Content History

Domestic routes

International lines

Ministry of Railway

GM Railway

Railway division

Decline of Pakistan Railways

Contd… Government role

Revenue Vs. Expenditures

Disasters

Condition of employees

Finance Ministry refusal

Role of private sector

Question and answer session.

History The idea of a rail network was first thought of in 1847.

Sir Henry Edward Frere, appointed as the Commissioner of Sindh, sought permission from Lord Dalhousie to begin a survey for a Karachi Seaport and a railway line in 1858.

On May 13th, 1861 the first railway line was opened to the public, between Karachi (city) and Kotri, with a total distance of 105 miles (169 km).

Contd… By 1886, there were four railway companies

operating in Pakistan. The Scinde (Sindh) Railways, Indian Flotilla Company, Punjab Railway and Delhi Railways.

At the time of independence, 1,947 route miles (3,133 km) of North Western Railways were transferred to India, leaving 5,048 route miles (8,122 km) to Pakistan.

In 1954, the railway line was extended to Mardan and Charsada.

Contd… In 1956 the Jacobabad kashmore 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge line was converted into broad gauge.

In 1961, the Pakistani portion of North Western Railways was renamed Pakistan Railways.

The Kot Adu-Kashmore line was constructed between 1969 and 1973 providing an alternative route from Karachi to northern Pakistan.

A year 1900 view of the Karachi-Kemari Train

Domestic Routes Peshawar-Karachi

Peshawar-Quetta

Lahore-Sialkot

Lahore-Faisalabad

Faisalabad-Khanewal

International Lines Direct rail connections with China were proposed by Pervez

Musharraf in 2006.

A container train service from Pakistan to Turkey has been launched.

In spring 2009, a rail link between Quetta and Zahedan (in Iran) was constructed, allowing Pakistan Railways direct access to Europe and the Middle East

Ministry of Railway Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour is a Federal Minister for Railways

Early education from the Khudad Model School and Islamia School Peshawar.

Intermediate from Edwards College and got married soon afterwards.

GM Pakistan Railway

GM : Mr.Saeed Akhtar

Railways Division President of division : Mr. Imtiaz Ahmad.

There are four (4) Directorates in this Division namely:

Administrative Directorate,

Technical Directorate,

Planning Directorate, and

Finance Directorate

Decline Of Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways is not only the cheapest

yet safest mode of travel.

This public state enterprise is also the largest civil employer in the country.

Over the years, lack of attention, poor policies, increasing expenditures, misappropriation of funds, pilferage, nepotism and most recently, the floods have left the Railways with huge deficits running in billions of rupees

Contd... Till the 1970s, Pakistan Railways was run by an autonomous

four-member policy forming Railway Board which constituted a Member Traffic, Member Mechanical, Member Civil and Member Finance.

In 1990, the government appointed an officer from the Civil Services of Pakistan chairman and from then on there has been a rapid decline not only in performance but also the balance sheet of the organization.

Contd… Till 1990, the carriage factory in Islamabad was exporting freight

wagons and coaches to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, in addition to meeting local requirements.

Rather than augmenting this facility, the lure of kickbacks has resulted in its virtual shut down and orders were placed for import of carriages.

Although Moghalpura has facility to produce High Capacity (HC) wagons, the same were imported from China.

These imported wagons have the handicap that they cannot ply on branch lines because of axle load limitations.

Contd… Pakistan Railways had compatible locomotives from GE, Hitachi

and other companies – all with different axle loads but compatible with the railway tracks.

Main line tracks have the capability of handling a load of 22 tons per axle, while branch lines can sustain 16.5 tons per axle.

Out of 522 total engines only 220 are in working order, out of which 100 are in poor condition

Government Role Former president Pervez Musharraf appointed General Javed

Ashraf the railway minster, General Saeed the chairman and General Hamid Butt the general manager of manufacturing and services, all of whom had no prior experience in railways.

Pakistan Railways has been treated as an orphan institution throughout the years.

They imported from China ‘Group 1’ locomotives with axle load of 23 Tons per axle, although the limitation was 22 tons per axle.

Contd… Similarly, orders were placed for ‘Group 3’ locomotives with

loads of 19.3 tons – while the limitation was 17.5 tons per axle.

Rulers were building road networks and motorways in the name of development, whereas, no one thought about upgrading and maintaining the railways network. 

When the motorway’s cost was estimated at Rs 24 billion, Pakistan Railways came up with a proposal of upgrading its entire network in Rs.10 billion.

Revenue vs Expenditure The major losses faced by the Pakistan Railways today are a

direct result of decreasing revenues with increased expenditures.

The expenditure recently crossed Rs.53 billion in one year out of which Rs.20 billion were allocated for salaries and pensions.

The revenues are dwindling to about Rs.23 billion per year.

Revenue share for freight trains has declined from 40 percent to 25 percent as a direct result of neglecting this cheap mode of transportation

Disasters Nature has not been too kind to

Pakistan Railways either.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority, the recent floods have caused a loss of Rs.6.7 billion to the railway network as several hundred kilometres of lines were washed away.

The railway coaches were also the targets of angry mobs and arson attacks after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination resulting in huge losses.

Condition Of Employees Pakistan Railways has about 90,000 employees consisting of

staff and officers as of 2008. which is more than required.

Employees are taking salaries without working and sitting idle at home.

More than Rs.20 billion is allocated for salaries and pensions

Employees have very strong unions so it is difficult for Government to fired them

Finance ministry refusal Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani approved Rs. 11.5 billion as a

bailout package for Pakistan Railways.

Rs5 billion was to be paid by the federal government as cost for rehabilitation projects

The finance ministry refused to grant Rs5 billion saying it could not provide further subsidies to Pakistan Railways seeing as it is already suffering huge losses .

Privatization Of Railway The Finance Division of GoP has proposed the privatization of

Pakistan Railway due to the increasing budget deficit and poor performance of Pakistan Railways since last many years

I as a citizen of Pakistan think that privatization of Pakistan railway is good for railway

Contd… With Privatization more vistas and job opportunities will be

created

With more investments in the infra-structure of this institution major up gradation will be possible such as electric trains, new tracks & conditions overall will be improved

Merit will be observed in HR induction & job vaccancies

Contd…If Pakistan Railway is privatized

The transport of mango people will be reinstated. Pakistan Railways will not be burden over Budget anymore.

Proper check and balance will be observed and corruption will be controlled.

Pakistan Railways will not be dependent upon Govt.

Pakistan Railways will not have short-comings for salaries

Contd… Pakistan Railways will be able to go under complete up gradation

and installation of new routes….

Survey According to Gilani research foundation, 42 % of all

Pakistanis support the privatization of Pakistan railway.

whereas 35 % are against it who believed that privatization of Pakistan Railway is not a good idea and the rest of the 23 % gave no response.

Surprisingly, findings of the survey reveal no significant difference in opinion of people from across different demographics.

THANK YOU

QUESTIONS

&

ANSWERS