LAHORE: An agreement was signed between the Pakistan Railways (PR) and Pakistan Railway Advisory & Consultancy Services Limited (PRACS) regarding branding of trains and railway stations at the PR Headquarters on Saturday.
PR Chief Commercial Manager Passengers Khalid Khursheed Kanwar and PRACS MD Shamim Ahmad Sherazi signed the agreement.
Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique was also present.
According to the agreement, initially branding would be carried out at 14 railway stations besides using five trains for the purpose.
Five trains include Awam Express running between (Peshawar to Karachi) Hazara Express (Havelian to Karachi), Karachi Express (Lahore to Karachi), Khyber Mail (Peshawar to Karachi) and Tezgam running from (Rawalpindi to Karachi) while stations where branding would be carried out includes Hyderabad, Karachi Cantt, Karachi City, Khanewal, Lahore, Landhi, Multan, Peshawar Cantt, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Rohri, Wazirabad, Kot Lakhpat and Lahore Cantt.
Minister Saad Rafique said the branding of 14 railway stations and five trains would help in generating income of about Rs 140 million annually and in the second phase this project would be expanded to other stations and trains.
He said the PR had 527 railway stations and 50 passenger trains through which the railways was providing travelling and job opportunities to 80 million passengers annually, adding that with the passage of time this strength was increasing and this increasing capacity could help any brand in achieving success.
Saad Rafique said a decision had been made by the ministry of railways and PR Headquarters for giving labour benefit package to its staff which, he added, would be given inform of technical allowance and one time benefit.
Under this package Rs 390 millions would be utilized in 2015-16 and 75,000 employees of scale 1 to scale 16 would get benefit from this package.
He said the PR would give an amount of Rs 390 million through its earning in this regard.
The minister said the PR was making short term investments to improve its efficiency adding that work was being done with an approach to ensure the maximum improvement of the PR.
"Salary issue of Pakistan Railways Police would be resolved soon adding that Rs 300 million have been set aside from the PR income for repair and maintenance of staff residencies and quarters", he added.
Saad Rafique said out of this Rs 300 million Rs 250 million would be utilized for maintenance and repair of the residencies of the officers whereas Rs 275,000,000 would be spent on the repair and maintenance of low staff residencies.
The minister said Rs 300 million would be utilized as follows: Rs 50 million for construction of staff quarters and these quarters would consist of two bed rooms and would be for employees from grade 1 to grade 11, Rs 60 million for resolving drainage and water supply issues of railway colonies and Rs 190 million for emergency situations like roof collapse and other incidents.
The minister said more Rs 300 million would be given for the construction of staff quarters. He said that 24 railway stations would be upgraded and the quarters would be constructed at one place in vertical pattern to bring staff at one place.
Speaking about the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the minister said this issue should not be made controversial like Kalabagh and under the CPEC Pakistan Railways would get $ 3.7 billion which was a concessional loan.
He said this investment would be utilized on (ML1) which, he said was life line of Pakistan Railways adding that construction of ML-1 would make the railways self-reliant.
He said the ML-2 was also of high importance and Expression of Interest (EOI) had been issued regarding ML-2 and work was also being carried out for preparing feasibility report in this regard. The minister said feasibility work and land acquisition of ML-2 would be completed.
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