ADB to offer soft loans to Pakistan Railways

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday decided to formulate Pakistan Railway Strategic Plan (PRSP) to operationlise the targets set in the Vision 2025,CPEC and Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) framework and to have a roadmap for development of Railways sector in Pakistan.

“Pakistan Railways was passing through the worst phase of its history before 2013”, Kh Saad Rafique, Federal Minister for Railways said while speaking at the workshop.  Saad Rafique suggested some parameters which promise progress. Like there is merit based decision making, transparency, rotation of sources to freight, depoliticisation of system. He said that PR is likely to surpass the revenue targets by June next year, as it is expected to earn Rs40 billion against the set amount of Rs36 billion. The revenue from freight trains had also increased and these are likely to touch Rs16 billion by June next year.

Meanwhile ADB has also offered soft loan to Pakistan Railways to improve the railways infrastructure. The ADB is offering loans to PR on flexible conditions for bringing advancement in railways infrastructure.