ISLAMABAD, June 9: The Senate standing committee on railways has asked the government to allocate sufficient funds for the Pakistan Railways to make it a safe, economical and customer- oriented organization.

A meeting of the committee presided over by its chairman Kamil Ali Agha in the Parliament House on Tuesday said the government should take care of the railways' every need to help it implement its ten-year emergency and rehabilitation plan.

The committee made these recommendations while attending a briefing on the working mechanism and basic structure of the Pakistan Railways by minister for railways Ghous Bux Khan Mahar.

The committee was informed that the Khanewal-Lodhran section of the railways was being dualized while Lahore-Khanewal, Lahore- Faisalabad and Bolan Pass sections were planned to be electrified.

Regarding doubling of tracks, the committee was told that Raiwind-Khanewal and Lahore-Faisalabad sections were planned to be double tracked in the near future. The committee was of the view that priority should be given to double track the Lahore-Faisalabad section and the government should provide sufficient funds to the railways in the coming budget to enable it to complete the task within the stipulated time.

Discussing the proposed crash programme for making Pakistan a transit hub, the committee stressed the need for carrying out a feasibility study on converting the Zhob-Quetta section into a broad gauge. It also recommended that the project might not be abandoned and be taken in hand when funds were made available.