LAHORE, May 14: The cash-starved Pakistan Railways has sought a Rs35 billion relief package from the government on an emergent basis so that the organisation can be steered out of the ongoing crises.

“The package does not include the Rs2.5 billion the railways has been getting for payment of salaries and pension to its serving and retired employees,” an official of the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Office of PR at its headquarters in Lahore told Dawn on Monday.

A sum of Rs16 billion has been sought for the procurement of fuel, Rs6 billion each for locomotive and infrastructure rehabilitation, Rs4 billion for track and signal system rehabilitation, and Rs3 billion for procurement of new passenger coaches.

Upward revision of POL products’ prices and devaluation of Pakistani rupee necessitated the demand for an additional grant to get the railways back on the rail.

“The railways administration alone is not responsible for the current state of affairs. During the last two decades or so, no government took railways seriously and gave funds to it. In the last fiscal, projects worth Rs13 billion were approved under the Public Sector Programme, but the railways got only Rs1.2 billion. Under such circumstances how can railways be run efficiently?” said the official.

Railways lost assets worth Rs6,561 million in the riots after the assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto. The government had resolved to restore the infrastructure of Pakistan Railways in three months by bearing the cost of repairing and replacing damaged tracks and other assets.“We lost assets in three days, but the government decided to grant Rs6 billion to the Railways in three years… but the promise is yet to be fulfilled. How can we minimise the gap between our earnings and spending when we lack rolling stock and our infrastructure is damaged?,” maintained the official.