Railway transportation has a crucial role in the economic development of any nation, especially a country like Pakistan by providing a cheaper mode of traveling and boosting economic and industrial activities.
Besides promoting national integration and intra-development, cheaper railways transportation and its large-capacity haulage over long distances facilitate both routine travelers and ferrying industrial goods. Through this medium millions of people and tons of freight can be transported from one city to another within the country and boost regional trade by extending its network to neighboring states.
Promotion of this sector also generates employment for technical hands, engineers, administrative officers, and the labour class besides providing middle and lower middle classes a cheaper source of the journey.
Pakistan’s railway system is made of 11,881 km (7,383 miles) of train tracks. However, about 80% of the rails are a part of 80 to 90-year-old historical buildings. The top speed on the majority of these Pakistani railway lines is 120 km/h (75 mph).
Employing more than 75,000 persons and providing employment indirectly to at least ten times more, it contributes significantly to the GDP of the country. Being the cheapest mode of transportation of goods and commuting passengers, it has been the pivot of Pakistan’s industrial and commercial development.
The improved parts of the Karachi to Peshawar railway line, however, allow for speeds of up to 130 kph (81 mph). Additionally, work is being done in Pakistan as part of the CPEC Projects to modernize the majority of the major lines to enable quicker train speeds of up to 160 kph (99 mph) and lessen the amount of congestion experienced by Pakistani railway traffic.
Railway operational track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger services. Pakistan’s railway system includes main lines and branch lines. Currently, there are only 5 main lines and about 20 branch lines that connect the various cities in the provinces and their districts.
In 2014, the Ministry of Railways launched Pakistan Railways Vision 2026, which seeks to increase PR’s share in Pakistan’s transportation sector from 4% to 20%, using the Rs. 886.68 billion (US$3.1 billion) China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) rail upgrade. The plan includes building new locomotives, development, and improvement of current rail infrastructure, an increase in average train speed, improved on-time performance and expansion of passenger services.
The first phase of the project was completed in 2017, and the second phase is scheduled for completion by 2021. Among them is the ML-1 project, which will be completed in three phases at a cost of Rs. 1.11 trillion (US$3.8 billion). Until October 2022, these projects have not started construction or tendering.
Pakistan Railways is an active member of the International Union of Railways. In the 2018/19 financial year, Pakistan Railways carried 70 million passengers. Pakistan’s strategic location is one of the main reasons why it is an activity hub under the auspices of the Belt and Road Initiative by the Chinese government.
In Pakistan, several significant dry ports, which will be connected by railway lines, are now being built throughout the nation. The two main Pakistani ports, Port Qasim and Karachi Port are also connected to the country’s freight railway transit system. It is used to transport agricultural, industrial, and imported goods, including sugar, wheat, coal, fertilizer, rock phosphate, vehicles, electronics, and a variety of lubricants.
In 2022-23, the railway division allocated Rs45 billion, and another Rs32.6 billion were allocated through the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). However, from April to October 2022, the PR recorded a loss of almost Rs35 billion. When PSDP inflows and the loss due to accidents are included, the Pakistan Railway is losing almost Rs100 billion annually.
Today, the transport sectors, especially rail, play a vital role for the socio-economic development of any country. In analyzing the situational aspects of the Pakistani railways, we have observed that Pakistani Railways has suffered a series of losses in recent decades.
In addition, the lack of human resources, nepotism and political involvement in the appointment of employees contributed greatly to the collapse of the Pakistani railways. Political and personal interests are involved in the placements and transfers of employees, which cause indignation and the feeling of job insecurity among them and have led to a lack of effectiveness of the organization.
Poor infrastructure is also contributing in the distraction of Pakistan Railways. Most of Pakistan’s railway resources, including physical infrastructure, including physical infrastructure, have been used to their full potential and are no longer productive, seriously disrupting the effectiveness of the work.
While infrastructure development has been identified as the primary concern by the current administration, maintenance and repair expenditures are a major contributing factor to overall operating costs.
Travelling without a ticket on Pakistan Railways also occurs quite frequently, which creates losses for Pakistani railways. This unethical activity is most apparent on branch lines where it is believed to occur with the support of railway police and ticket verifiers. To increase monetary gains, Pakistan’s railways must improve administration to protect these leaks.
Corruption destroys the confidence of citizens in the public sector to do what is in their best interests. Pakistan’s public sector is largely prey to corruption, and overcoming these corrupt activities among government officials is a major preoccupation of the establishment.
In order to combat corruption at the micro and macro levels, the Pakistani railways had established the new standards of incorruptibility and implemented several safety measures by initiating the principles of accountability, transparency and effective fiscal management for the past four years. Officials involved in corruption were correctly taken and provided severe penalties with the dismissal of the service awarded.
Therefore, to improve the performance of Pakistan Railways concerned authorities could encourage the public-private partnership particularly in advancement of existing and new infrastructure.
Pakistan Railways can get help from publicity to attract the public towards railways. Finally, and most importantly, Pakistani railways need to engage their officials; in more commercial deals with different industries to increase Pakistan Railways revenues.
Rezwan Ullah, Beijing Institute of Technology, contributed to this article.
