LAHORE, Oct 30: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Railways has taken a serious note of the railways dwindling income and poor utilization of development funds during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

The committee will discuss on Monday (today) reasons for the railways low earnings from July to September 2005 and poor progress on the utilization of Rs9 billion development funds for the organization.

PR Vigilance Cell’s reports on the misuse of the railway saloon and Mughalpura Workshop divisional superintendent’s alleged involvement in the matter and his conduct will also be discussed at a meeting to be presided over by committee chairman Sardar Tufail Ahmad at the committee room of the Parliament House.

The NA committee has asked the PR authorities to present “comparative statement of railways earnings from July to October 2005, and from July to October 2004, along with the targets and achievements.”

The members of the committee are State Minister for Railways Ishaq Khan Khakwani, Dev Das, Begum Shahnaz Sheikh, Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, Dr Nisar Ahmad, Anwar Bhutto, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Farooq Azam Malik, Qazi Hameedullah Khan, Abdus Sattar Afghani, Chaudhry Asim Nazir, Tasneem Qureshi, Sahibzada Mahmoob Sultan, Syed Gulzar Sibtain Shah, Saeed Virk and Pir Muhammad Shah Khagga. Railways Minister Shamim Haider is the ex-officio member.

Meanwhile, the PR high-ups have finalized the working papers on the three-point agenda of the NA body meeting.

“Freight is the major contributor to the income of the railways and it decreased after the supply of oil from Karachi to upcountry started through pipeline. Relief activities after the Oct 8 earthquake like running of the freight train to the affected areas, provision of free travel facilities to the people also hit the income,” sources quoted the PR high-ups as having reported in one of the working papers.

“Shortage of locomotives and wagons is the other major reason that was badly affecting the freight operations of the railways, resulting in decrease in its overall earnings,” the PR high-ups said according to the sources.

EARNINGS: The railways was over Rs1307.806 million short of the budget target during the first 112 days of the 2005-06 fiscal year, it is learnt.

Sources said the railways budget target was Rs6228.971 million while the approximate income, including military traffic earnings, remained Rs4921.165 million from July 1 to Oct 20.

The proportionate actual earnings in the sector for the same period of previous year was Rs5052.108 million, the sources said.

The railways income in passenger sector was Rs172.208 million less than the target of Rs3065.335 million as it could earn Rs2893.127 million while the proportionate actual earnings for the same period of the previous year was Rs2769.93 million.

The freight income during the period was Rs1244.168 million which was Rs571.737 million less than the target of Rs1815.905 million while the proportionate actual earnings for the same period of previous year was Rs1504.227 million.

The income in sundry sector was Rs491.591 million less than the target of Rs869.279 million against the earning of Rs377.688 million. The proportionate actual earnings in the sector for the same period of the previous year was Rs360.437 million.

The organization earned Rs258.423 million in the other coaching sector which was Rs2.236 million less than the Rs260.659 million target while the proportionate actual earnings for the same period of the previous year was Rs196.073 million.

In the military traffic head, the railways income decreased by Rs70.034 million as its approximate earnings remained Rs147.759 million against the target of Rs217.793 million from July 1 to Oct 20.

The proportionate actual earnings in the military traffic head for the same period of the previous year was Rs221.468 million, the sources said.

The overall income of the organization remained Rs401.935 million against the budget target of Rs175.619 million during the last 10 days.

From Oct 11 to Oct 20, the railways earned Rs3.192 million in passenger sector against the target of Rs10.113 million which showed a shortfall of Rs6.921 million.

The proportionate actual earnings for the same period of the previous year was Rs10.533 million.

The freight income during the period was Rs4.469 million which was Rs4.730 million less than the target of Rs9.199 million while the proportionate actual earnings for the same period of the previous year was Rs4.482 million.

In the other coaching sector, the organization earned Rs0.504 million which was Rs7.529 million less than the Rs8.033 million target while the proportionate actual earnings for the same period of the previous year was Rs9.116 million.