THE newly-appointed minister for railways has mentioned two priorities amid the objectives he envisaged for addressing the problems faced by Pakistan Railways; augmentation of its freight traffic, and to consider its privatisation.

These aims are credible, primarily when viewed from the standpoint of the Planning Commission’s recommendations that the railways should boost its handling of freight traffic, which was considered a far more paying proposition compared to passenger traffic. Using railways for long-haul freight transportation is the most economical mode of transport.

It may be pointed out with regret that there was a time when the railways used to handle 70 per cent of the annual freight traffic, which, according to reports, has now dropped to 6pc.

Coming to the privatisation of the department, the proposal in its entirety does not sound plausible. However, the participation of the private sector in running the railways, subject to certain parameters, can be given serious consideration.

In this regard, a proposal was discussed by the Planning Commission but it did not make any headway for certain reasons. According to that proposal, the ‘landlord concept’ can be adopted in this case, whereby the railways infrastructure, including the stations, track and the mechanism for operations and maintenance, will be the public-sector propriety and responsibility. On the other hand, the ownership of the rolling stock, including the coaches and locomotives, will fall within the private sector’s purview.

An analogy can be drawn between this setup and that of the civil aviation, where the government’s airports cater to airlines of both the public and private sectors in respect of local and foreign airlines.

In this case, however, an in-depth study should be carried out since the establishment of such a setup would entail modification of the existing system.

Khurram Azad Khan
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2021