LAHORE, April 5: Rail fares will not be increased, though the Pakistan Railways is paying Rs6 billion interest per annum on its Rs48 billion debt.

“I am giving them (railway officials) an opportunity to improve themselves by Dec 31 this year,” said Minister for Railways Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan at his maiden news conference at the PR headquarters after assuming charge of office.

The operational deficit of the railways stood at Rs16 billion. “It owes Rs23 billion to the State Bank and the government while the foreign loans are Rs25 billion. But no asset would be leased out or privatised to pay the debt. Instead we’ll utilise the resources to improve the financial condition of railways. Only the agreements that are in the interest of railways would continue and I’ve sought report from the railway officers in this behalf,” he maintained.

The railways was not given the attention it deserved during the past eight years. At present, 61 per cent rolling stock and 85 per cent track had outlived its usefulness. The freight sector had always been ignored and no efforts were made to increase its share, as a result, it had been transporting only four per cent of the total goods transported in the country, the minister said.

The PR would be independent, he said, to decide financial and administrative matters but an effective accountability system would remain in place.

A decision to restore trade union activities in the railways had been taken. “I’ve asked the representatives of trade unions to make railways a profitable organisation and they would be paid bonus out of the profit,” he added.

The minister was not aware that stoppages of several express and non-stop trains had been allowed on a political basis, but he said from now onwards stoppages of all trains would be on the basis of customer need.

He said rioters destroyed signal system from Bin Qasim to Mirpur Mathalo, that’s why trains were covering the 16-hour journey between Lahore and Karachi in 20 hours.