LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways in its three-year performance report submitted to Prime Minister Imran Khan claims to have undertaken a lot of projects to implement the vision of the PTI government.

The report has been brought forth a few days after the National Assembly Standing Committee criticised the railways for its “poor performance.”

In its report, the department claims that the total PSDP allocation to it in 2018-19 was Rs28 billion. During this period, the PR completed eight projects. Its major initiatives included procurement of track machines and equipment for the maintenance of rolling stock, relief trains and development of the strategic plan.

“In 2019-20, the PR’s PSDP allocation was Rs16 billion. In this period, the department completed five schemes which included upgrade of PR’s existing main line-1, establishment of dry port near Havelian, acquisition of land for railways corridor in Gwadar and conduction of feasibility studies for various schemes,” reads the report.

It recently took the flak from NA Standing Committee

It says the PSDP allocation in 2020-21 was Rs24 billion that helped department launch and complete 13 schemes including rehabilitation of Karachi circular railway and KPT rail connectivity, purchase of 820 freight wagons and 230 passenger coaches, rehabilitation of accidental locomotives, improvement of terminal facilities, collaboration of the PR with academic institutions and rehabilitation of tracks at different sections.

The report mentions various initiatives such as restructuring of the department under the Public Private Partnership. It also claims to have undertaken organisational reforms through hiring of advisers, ML-1 project, revamping financial management, private sector engagement, train safety regime, outsourcing of passenger and goods’ trains, manning of 40 unmanned level crossings, closure of 1,561 unauthorised locations, launch of social media team, retrieval of 64,317 acre land from grabbers, track upgrade, Rs4.554 billion earning through leasing of the land etc.

The NA committee on the PR at its meeting on Aug 24 last criticised the senior officials for ‘doing nothing’ for launching the strategically important Main Line-1 (ML-1) project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and controlling train accidents frequently occurring in Sukkur division and the rail network across the country in general.

The committee members led by chairman Moeen Wattoo during the meeting said the PR performance was unsatisfactory, saying it was just zero in the last three years. “For the last eight years, we have been hearing about the launch of ML-1 project. And you have just made its PC-1 which is lying with the planning commission,” the chairman said.

The members also questioned the performance of the department over accidents including one that claimed 69 lives in June this year near Ghotki. They also expressed annoyance over the justification of the PR officers on the issue of accidents and actions taken by the department. They said why the department continued punishing low-grade officers instead of the departmental heads.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2021