Railway Assignment 02

Problem of Railway in Pakistan;
Introduction to pakistan railway

Among the means of transportation railways are the cheapest and safest mode for passengers
and goods. It also helps in growth of economy for the country. A plan for a rail system in
Pakistan was first proposed in 1858.
. Pakistan Railways (reporting mark PR)
is a national state-owned rail transport service of Pakistan, head-quartered in Lahore. It is
administered by the federal government under the Ministry of Railways. PR provides an
important mode of transportation throughout Pakistan. It is commonly referred to as the "life
line of the country", by aiding in large-scale movement of people and freight throughout
Pakistan. ( pakistan railway).
Problem Faced by Pakistani Railway

. There are five major problems Pakistan Railways is facing:
1) Shortage of advanced locomotives.
2) Huge Losses & Budget Deficit.
3) Mismanagement.
4) Decreased Market Share .
5) Corruption.
 Shortage of Locomotives:
The Pakistan Railways has a total of 546 locomotives but only 290 are on track while the
rest are out of order. Similarly, 70 per cent carriages are out of service.
In a report submitted to Railway Ministry, it has been disclosed that as many as 70
locomotives are awaiting spares at Pakistan Locomotive Factory, Risalpur since 2004.
 Huge Losses & Budget Deficit:

The reason for this loss is the presence of unnecessary departments which are white
elephant for Pakistan Railways. The biggest among those is the Railways Police that
takes over Rs 1.5 billion including emoluments and other facilities followed by Stores
and Purchase.
These departments should be abolished from Railways without further delay.
Their utility for railways is marginal at best. The Audit and Accounts, Railways
Workshops Division, and General Administration staf need drastic cuts.
 Mismanagement:
Currently Pakistan Railways is facing acute shortage of locomotives and spare parts for
maintenance of out of service locomotives. Since independence little has been done to
expand the railway network in Pakistan.
As per the reports compiled by the design team, Pakistan Railways need 40 – 50
locomotives annually to run its operations efectively.
 Decreased Market Share :

Over the years, Pakistan Railways could not maintain its share in the country’s transport
sector. With Railway ministry shutting down operations of various trains, it is no wonder
that the market share of Pakistan Railways in cargo transport has fall to mere 5% from
75% in 1960s and 1970s.
Around the world, railways are the cheapest and safest mode of transport and majority
of goods transport is carried out via railways. However, in Pakistan the situation is
completely diferent.
 Corruption
Corruption is the biggest problem Pakistan Railways is facing today. The Railway
Department has been sufering losses since years long. Contractor system is one of the
causes of such losses. Moreover, there are enormous irregularities in local purchases.
In short Pakistan Railways is a classic example of bad governance, poor policies,
corruption and mismanagement.
“In the light of above problems the Railway Board decided to

hire external OD consultants to design interventions that can help in turning around the
organization into a successful reform change”.
 Recommendation of Railway in Pakistan:
Followings are some of the suggestions to improve the condition for railway system of
Pakistan:
 First of all government should eradicate corruption in railways sector. Corruption is the
menace that is destroying many sectors of Pakistani society.
 - Pakistan Railways should be privatized. This is also the possible solution of problem
because currently government of Pakistan has to bear the huge losses monthly.
 Other benefits of privatization of Pakistan Railways include the increase in service
quality and expansion of Railways because government has nothing to invest in PR.
 - Government should ask Chinese for help in order to make it profitable organization
because China has made wonderful progress in railway industry
 . It has managed to develop its railway industry to the point at which it was able to out-
compete the established systems in Europe and North America in winning the contract
to build a high speed line connecting Mecca with Medina.
 - India is also making impressive strides in the railway sector. The underground system
in Delhi has won the admiration of many foreign experts for its engineering as well as
management. The inter-city system is being modernized in terms of both the quality of
service on offer as well as the new equipment being used.
 The Indian and Chinese systems are by far the largest in the world and the two countries
as a result of the advances they are making will come to dominate the world railway
industry and business.
 Pakistan being a neighbor of these two rapidly growing and giant economies could
benefit enormously from the development of the two systems.
 - Pakistan is blessed with coal reserves and a single Thar coal reserve of Sindh is about
850 Trillion Cubic feet which is more than oil reserves of KSA and Iran put together i.e.
375 billion barrels.
In conclusion,
The best solution of this problem is the privatization of Pakistan Railway. We can take
the example of PTCL; before privatization PTCL's monthly losses were in billions. Today it
is not only a profitable organization but also providing excellent services to the
customers. Corruption in Pakistan Railways can only be removed by privatization of
Pakistan Railways.

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Railway Assignment 02

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Problem of Railway in Pakistan;

Introduction to pakistan railway

Problem Faced by Pakistani Railway

 Huge Losses & Budget Deficit:

 Decreased Market Share :

“In the light of above problems the Railway Board decided to

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