KARACHI, July 8: The Pakistan Railways on Monday blamed the Sindh govt for not cooperating with it in the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway.

“Had the Sindh government cooperated with us, we would have started the Karachi Circular Railway and made joint commercial ventures with private sector, utilizing the real estate of the railways”, observed the railways minister, Javed Ashraf Qazi, here on Monday.

Speaking to KCCI members, the minister further said that encroachments along the railway tracks in down-town area were a major problem hindering the revival of the KCR.

He said that the Sindh government wanted Rs 12 billion to start the KCR, but the Pakistan Railways could revive the project in Rs 6 billion with the pre-condition that the Sindh government helps in the removal of encroachments.

He said that the loss-making railways had now been placed on the path to profitability.

“Owing to non-cooperative attitude of the Sindh government, the ministry has, so far, failed to bring commercialization in the railways sector in the province”.

He said at the time of his take-over the railways had a Rs 20 billion overdraft accrued to SBP out of which it recently paid back Rs 5 billion from its own resources.

The minister informed that so far some 40,000 railway employees had been sent home.

He said the railway would have to sustain an additional burden of Rs 1.5 billion per annum due to increase in salaries of the employees and upward revision of diesel prices this year.

Qazi said that despite difficulties, all efforts were being made to revive the Pakistan Railways on commercial lines.

Referring to recent developments, he said the railway’s passenger traffic had increased by 21 per cent while freight transportation had also surged by six per cent as compared to previous years.

He said the Karachi Cantonment Railway Station would have a modern reservation office within a year besides a complete rehabilitation of railway coaches and the tracks was also in progress.

The minister for communication and railways further said that all the departments under his ministry were now financially viable.

Referring to development projects of KPT, he said second container terminal would soon start functioning while the northern by-pass would be completed in the next two years.

He said that the ministry had set up a shipping rate advisory committee which would soon get legal status under an ordinance.

He said today Pakistan was at the mercy of foreign shipping lines that fix rates of their own choice. He invited the private sector to invest in the shipping sector under new shipping policy that would remain valid till year 2025.

He, however, observed, “even this fully concession-oriented policy had not yet attracted any investment in the shipping sector”.

Referring to war-risk surcharge and other shipping rates, he said his ministry had suggested to the Ministry of Commerce to send a delegation to London to sort out these problems.

Similarly, he said night navigation facility has been started at Port Qasim to facilitate the traders while speedy work was also under way on Gwadar Port Project being constructed with the help of China.

Qazi said all out efforts were being made to revive Pakistan National Shipping Corporation.

“Only 8 ships out of 14 in the fleet are sea-worthy and the PNSC has only one oil-tanker,” he said and invited private sector to buy ships which could be used by the PNSC.—APP