KARACHI: Railway tickets being sold on black market
KARACHI, Oct 26: The federal minister for communications and railways, Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, has said black marketing of tickets continues at railway stations despite stringent measures by the authorities, causing huge losses to the Pakistan Railways, besides harassment to the passengers.
Taking cognizance of the black marketing at Karachi cantonment and city stations he warned that stern action would be taken against officials found involved in the offence.
Talking to the newsmen during his visit to construction site of new reservation office at the city railway station, on Friday, the minister warned the porters that their contracts would be cancelled if found involved in black marketing.
He directed the DIG, Railway Police, and the divisional superintendent, railways, to take action against such elements and submit performance report to him within ten days.
About the financial condition of the PR, Javed Ashraf said it was gradually improving with the increase in its revenue. “The PR is the only government department which has paid back Rs3 billion overdraft to the State Bank of Pakistan,” he said, adding that about 50 per cent of the SBP overdraft was interest.
“We are spending more on rehabilitating coaches and locomotives and so far more than 300 coaches have been refurbished,” he stated.
About future plans, the minister said the entire railway would be modernized to provide better travel facilities to the passengers. All the routes would be determined on the commercial bases unlike the past practice when routes were decided on political bases, he claimed.
Reservation system would be totally computerized throughout the country, the minister said, adding that computerization of Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi stations was underway. Pakistan has singed an agreement with China for provision of 170 coaches and 29 locomotives, which are expected to reach shortly, he said.
The minister ruled out the possibility of running “Bullet Train” in Pakistan, saying the present infrastructure was over 100 years old. The project needed new track for which the government would need Rs40 billion, he added.
He reiterated that privatization of the railway would be done only for the rail cars and rolling stock would not be privatized. “If the private sector wants to come forward it should bring new cars and coaches to ply on routes of their own choice,” he offered.
About recent fare hike, he said it had been increased for the upper class owing to the increasing fuel prices abroad. Besides, the PR is the biggest user of electricity and recent tariff hike had also affected it, he added.
Regarding Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), he said the PR was suffering losses to the tune of Rs5 million per year for plying trains at totally non-profitable routes in the city. If the city district government wants to resume the KCR, the PR will provide it with rolling stock and technical facilities, he responded.
During his visit to the divisional headquarters, the minister called for making the railway operation at divisional control office more effective by restructuring and repositioning of the control panels.
He directed that control panels be monitored all the time by an officer of transportation branch instead of chief controller alone, who is subordinate of the transportation officer.
The Joint Director, Vigilance, Col Amjad Zaman, briefed the minister about details of important cases of the vigilance department, which had been detected during the last a couple of months.
Gen Javed Ashraf directed that task of restructuring of Control Room and repositioning of control panels should be completed within 15 days.
During a meeting with divisional superintendent, the minister appreciated the performance of the division in achieving higher earnings, particularly in fetching higher bids for vending and parking.
He suggested that the division could earn still more revenues through auctioning of shops at various railway stations besides extending the lease of about 350 acres of railway’s agriculture land, which had already been identified in various places in the railway division.
SOOMRO: The governor of Sindh, Mohammedmian Soomro, has said that the province plays a key role in the economic development of the country. He said we desire earlier completion of the ongoing communications projects in Sindh.
He was talking to the federal minister for communications and railways, Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, at the Governor’s House on Saturday.
He said that it was encouraging that the PR had been put on the track towards development and its deficit was being controlled.
The governor said all possible steps needed to be taken for providing modern railway facilities to the people. He said that completion of highway projects in Sindh would prepare the ground for socio-economic development of the country. The Sindh government would extend every possible cooperation during completion of the railway and communications projects, he added.—PPI/APP
