Pakistan Railways proposed 26 new projects worth Rs 7.795 billion under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the next fiscal year 2014-15, with major focus on repair of locomotives, track and overhauling of infrastructure.
Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said for the monitoring of railway tracks, it has been decided to induct fresh retired army personnel and for improved security/counter terrorism Rs 1 billion has been proposed in the upcoming budget 2014-15. The minister said a summary has been moved to the Prime Minister, seeking his approval to bring Railway police salaries at par with police of provinces.
A meeting of the Standing Committee on Railways was held here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Syed Naveed Qamar to discuss/scrutinise the budgetary proposals relating to PSDP for the fiscal year 2014-15 in respect of Ministry of Railways and its attached departments.
Briefing the committee, General Manager Railways said that a total 26 new projects are being proposed for PSDP for financial year 2014-15. The PR has demanded Rs 3.5 billion under PSDP 2014-15 for special repair and rehabilitation of locomotives, Rs 1.13 billion for procurement and repair of carriage and wagons, Rs 316 million for feasibility studies of different track and infrastructure projects, Rs 830 million for upgradation of signalling system and Rs 1.33 billion for stations and buildings.
The PR would require Rs 50 billion annual funds for completion of on-going and new proposed projects in the next financial year. There are 33 on-going projects with a total cost of Rs 243.76 billion and expected expenditure o these projects up to June 30, 2014 amounts to Rs 93.27 billion while balance funds required for completion of these on-going projects is Rs 150.49 billion. A major chunk of the budget, ie, Rs 22.64 billion has been proposed for procurement and rehabilitation of locomotives, while Rs 9.515 billion for procurement/manufacture of carriage and wagons.
The minister informed the committee that 80 of the allocation would be utilised for on-going projects while 20 percent for new projects. Briefing on the new projects, the minister said that Railways headquarter would be transferred on solar energy instead of electricity costing Rs 36 million.
The committee constituted a sub-committee comprising 4 members, ie, Ramesh Lal, Dr Nasir Ahmed Jatt, Sardar Muhammad Irfan Dogar and Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal for collection/consolidation and presentation of Railways land encroachments in the country. Ramesh Lal would be the convenor of the sub-committee.
Comments
Comments are closed.