Bullet train project dropped due to high financial cost: Saad

Minister for Pakistan Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique has announced that the building of a bullet train project that would link Karachi and Peshawar has been dropped because it is too expensive and the passengers' turnout is too thin. Saad Rafique told a gathering of columnists and television anchors on Saturday at the Railways headquarter, "Chinese experts have calculated the financial cost of this bullet train around $68 billion and they are apprehending that even the upper-middle class is unable to meet high fares. We have replaced it with the M-I project where trains can travel at the higher speed of 140-kilometre per hour."
He shared his role during his first two years as minister, saying the revenue generation had increased to Rs 32 billion in 2014-15 against Rs 18 billion in 2012-13. "I've had no management skills, being a political worker, but I have relied on my own good intentions to put the rail back on track," he claimed. He also said the rails management lost hope two years ago when he took charge and everyone was waiting for the closure of it. "A good number of officers had left the railways and the rest of the lot had settled abroad. Choosing of honest and hardworking officers was my first priority and I did not accept any recommendation."
He also claimed that he kept on monitoring the work of staff hired by him to bring about a turnaround in the rails. "A complete turnaround could take a decade and I am sure that no one will dare to deviate from the growth path if my policies are carried on for another five years," he said.
He said coal supply would be ensured by early 2018 with the increase in strength of locomotives and new goods trains and advised policymakers they not to rely on one vendor and prefer diversification in engaging foreign partners. "We are working with China, Turkey and the United States simultaneously to avoid monopoly of a particular vendor," he said.
He then said the Pakistan Railways was in an awful shape because of incompetence of his predecessors but not corruption. In his comments on the bad part of the rails, he claimed, "I think both Bilour [Ghulam Ahmad Bilour] and Sheikh Rasheed [former railways ministers] were incompetent to handle the rail affairs, but Javed Ashraf Qazi [also a former rail minister] 'looted' it." In the end, he claimed that he had fetched revenues, passengers and activity back to the rails in the past two years.