No complaint of corruption in PR: Saad

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said there was not a single complaint of corruption in my tenure. We appointed best and qualified people on merit in Pakistan Railways.

Khawaja Saad Rafique stated this while addressing a farewell press conference on Friday. Narrating the success story of Pakistan Railways (2013-2018) at railways headquarters, he said, “Five years of our tenure are almost ending and I am very thankful to my team of railways and management for supporting my vision and working day and night without getting annoyed."

Pakistan Railways suffered mainly due to lack of adequate investment to augment and upgrade its operational assets, coupled with lack of adherence to key operational, managerial and financial performance indicators over the last several decades.

In 2013, the condition of assets had deteriorated to a dangerous level to an extent that 58 percent of its track had outlived its useful life. The signalling system, dictating the capacity of a section, was completely outdated and primitive in design. The result was that ML-1 on which the bulk of traffic moves had reached its capacity. There were 477 locomotives on the books out of which only 180 were operational. However, not a single locomotive was 100 percent reliable. After hectic consultations with all stakeholders, a strategy was developed which touched four cornerstones i.e. containing the decline, stabilisation and re-orientation, institutionalisation and growth. The railway management took concrete steps to increase revenue, control expenditure and deficit both, decrease losses, and provide better facilities to passengers and freight customers.”

He said, “During 2017-18, an amount of Rs90 billion has been allocated for expenditure while the earning target is Rs50 billion i.e. a budget deficit of Rs40billion. However, this will be brought down to Rs36 billion, by controlling expenditure. In 2016-17, total freight trains run by railways increased to 6,940 per annum as compared to 2,172 in 2013-14.

These are projected to increase to 7,858 by 30th June, 2018. In order to increase income from the freight sector, the focus was placed on long haul and block loads which gradually increased the earning of the sector.” He said, “The punctuality of trains increased to 77 percent in FY2017-18 as compared to 42 percent in the FY2012-13, boosting passengers’ confidence in railway. For the first time in the history of Pakistan Railways, the management has reduced fares on a number of occasions. A discount of 25 to 50 percent was given on fares as part of Ramazan and Eid package. Pakistan Railways upgraded the 26 rakes of important trains. In order to ensure the provision of hygienic, good quality food to passengers, the administration has ensured that only branded food products are supplied to the stations.

In Punjab 75, in Sindh 44 and in KP six level crossings were upgraded. The IT department has been upgraded with new experts and equipment and has worked on a number of projects, including the design of new passenger reservation system, e-ticketing and launch of new website. A new mobile App has been introduced, which can be used to book seats directly through mobile phone, while timetable and train fares are also available on the website.

Till now, Pakistan Railways has sold 1.627 million tickets online while around 8,000 passengers are using the facility every day, yielding daily revenue of Rs11 million. The administration has taken several steps to facilitate porters at stations such as the provision of new uniforms, scheduling of holidays, enhancement of commission, free-of-cost food and medical facility etc.”

He further said, “There was not a single complaint of corruption in my tenure. A new policy regarding scrap is also a success. We appointed best and qualified people on merit. We tried our best to resolve the Royal Palm case but we didn’t get justice and the case is still in Supreme Court.

We are hoping that our struggle will get a reward. A contract was signed with Urban Unit for computerisation of railway land at a cost of Rs404 million. The land record management system will help in acquiring complete information about railway land. The administration has been able to identify 10,790 acre land that was earlier missing in the railway’s record. A number of projects will also be updated under CPEC regime.

If the people voted for the PML-N and we get a chance to serve our nation again we will surely complete those tasks which are still pending i.e. salary of railway police, service structure of railway and upgradation of tracks.”