The government has approved a plan under which railways will be restructured and an independent board of directors established.—File photo

ISLAMABAD: The Planning Commission has said Pakistan Railways should be reformed before its privatisation in phases.

In a new report, the commission has said the railways should outsource management of stations, allowing companies to run their own container and other trains.

According to the report, the railways should gradually be “unbundled and unregulated” following separate privatisation of tracks, station management and passenger and freight services.

The commission proposed that an independent regulatory body should be set up with the sole responsibility of promoting competition and implementing quality control in order to effectively regulate the railways after privatisation.

In the meantime, the government has approved a plan under which railways will be restructured and an independent board of directors established.

The government has asked railways to suggest a name for the restructured board and nominate a senior officer for the post of chief executive officer.

The railways have also been mandated to tailor the tariffs according to market dynamics, prioritise services and rationalise train operations, diverting resources from the loss-making passenger sector to the revenue-generating freight sector.

The railways have also been asked to address critical shortage of locomotives by repairing 145 locomotives sitting in different workshops for want of spare parts.