LAHORE, Oct 23: The Pakistan Railways had a revenue shortfall of over one billion rupees during the first quarter of the current fiscal, says Minister of State for Railways Ishaq Khan Khakwani.

A review of the railways performance from July 1 to Oct 22 reveals a big slide of around Rs1.1 billion.

The income from freight and passenger sectors, according to the minister, remains much less than the corresponding period of previous year.

Khakwani told Dawn the PR could not even utilize the ADP according to the schedule and was far behind the target, much to the annoyance of the planning commission chairman.

The minister saw a bleak future for the railways if immediate measures were not taken to save it. “Nepotism and patronage of some incompetent people should stop immediately otherwise the circumstances may lead to the privatization of the organization.”

At present, he added, the railways lacked direction mainly because the right people were not at the right place. A reshuffle was needed to shunt out those not performing up to the mark.

Meanwhile, sources said the railways was Rs1081.333 million short of the budget target till Oct 10.

The projection was Rs5460.969 million while the overall income remained Rs4354.714 million from July 1 to Oct 10.

The income from the passenger sector was Rs141.767 million less than the target of Rs2819.762 million.

Similarly, the freight income during the period was Rs1121.238 million which was Rs516.709 million less than the target of Rs1637.947 million.

The income in sundry sector was Rs426.041 million less than the target of Rs768.200 million.