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Troubled Pakistan Railways on death bed, needs emergency treatment
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Visits
227
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Visits
227
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Visits
227
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November 25, 2011
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Pakistan’s another public sector organization is about to fall the victim of burgeoning corruption and state negligence. Soon the poor of this country would be completely at the mercy of transport mafia because the Pakistan Railways PR has been literally brought at the verge of collapse, a death bed.
Like many public organizations the PR is facing acute financial and management crisis, despite injection of borrowed money the state run entity is unable to recover from the shocks given by the concern authorities in the form of mismanagement and corruption. The operations have almost come to halt while the private sector is being seen as the rescuer. The PR owes over Rs 70 billion to other entities particularly Pakistan State Oil but is unable to payback.
At a time when other nations are experimenting to develop their railway networks as the fastest source of transportation and travel the PR is suffering from official negligence. Out of 502 locomotives only 95 are in operational. The ministry is demanding 400 engines to run the trains but who will foot the bill is not yet decided. The Gilani government is mired in the quagmire of political crisis, latest being a secret letter to US government that contains complaints about army.
Couple of years back the PR had signed an agreement with Chinese government for the procurement of more than 500 locomotives but only 60 could made the way to Pakistan. The government failed to honor its commitment and did not pay the dues to the Chinese firm, consequently the rest of the locomotives never reached Pakistan to pull the aging system. The Chinese engines which were inducted in the PR fleet over the course of time developed faults and some of them are out of the operation now.
Instead of renewing or honoring the deal with Chinese firm the PR officials sought help from the India but Indian authorities also refused to cooperate because of their own operational requirements.
Freight trains are major source of earning in other countries but unfortunately concept of cargo trains could not flourished in Pakistan. The current crisis has stopped PR’s cargo operations for last four months. The current situation is also compounding the miseries of the PR as many coaches, to the tune of 15000 are being abandoned which are likely to be rendered useless.
In PR case many smell a rate, such as in the case of power crisis which is artificially created to justify the concept of Rental Power Plants, the beneficiaries are the those who are close to the power corridors.
Many believe that the country’s transport mafia especially those running intercity buses are behind the PR crisis because road transport mafia and the trucking mafia are the biggest beneficiaries. The rush on the intercity buses indicates that they pocketing million of rupees whereas Pakistan Railways continues to suffer losses. Expert suggest that high level inquiry must be conducted to ascertain facts in order to save this public institution.
PR History: Railways, in this part of Asia, is about 150 years old. On May 13th, 1861 the first railway line was opened to the public, between Karachi and Kotri, with a total distance of 169 km. Another railway line between Karachi and Keamari was opened on June 16, 1889. In 1897, the line from Keamari to Kotri was doubled. By 1898 as the network began to grow, another proposed railway line was in the works from Peshawar to Karachi. It closely followed the route taken by Alexander The Great and his army while marching through the Hindu Kush to the Arabian Sea. During the early 20th century, railway lines were also laid down between Peshawar and Rawalpindi and Rawalpindi to Lahore. Different sections on the existing main line from Peshawar and branch lines were constructed in the last quarter of 19th century and early 20th century.
It is pertinent to note that a network that took 150 years to develop is about to fall in just three years. The responsibility of this disaster would be squarely on the shoulders of government but the employees, those who benefited by corrupt means and those who remained silent spectators, of Pakistan Railways are also equally responsible.
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