ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has retrieved around 383 acres of land worth Rs30 billion across the country in different anti-encroachment operations during the last one year of the present government.
It recovers 38 kilometers of the 43 km long Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) land from the encroachers, said a document of the Ministry of Railways after completing one year.
“More than one million customers are availing free live tracking through their smart phones.” Pakistan Railways had added 24 new passenger trains in its operations, all refurbished locally at Railways installations at Lahore and Islamabad and these trains attracted around 8 million new passengers and grabbing additional revenue.
It said that Pakistan Railways increased its freight volume from 4 percent to 7 percent by introducing special container goods trains.
Regarding the Main Line-I (ML-I) under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan Railways signed a declaration with China for up-gradation of 1872 km long track on Karachi-Peshawar.
Diesel fuel amounting 3.5 million litres was saved despite operating 24 new trains whereas the saving could have increased to 7 million litres of diesel fuel if new trains had not been introduced, it added. About the revenue generation, it said that Pakistan Railways during financial year 2018-19 achieved the highest ever revenue of Rs54.59 billion compared to Rs49.5 billion in 2017-18.
It said Pakistan Railways had managed to generate an additional revenue of Rs10 billion that helped to reduce its annual deficit by Rs4 billion and an absorption of Rs6 billion additional bill in respect of increasing cost of the fuel as well as of pay and pension bill.
"The annual deficit of Railways was lowered from Rs36 billion to Rs32 billion." In addition to ML-1 (Karachi-Peshawar), tenders floated for up-gradation of ML-2 (Attock-Jacoabad-Kotri), ML-3 (Rohri-Jacobabad-Quetta-Taftan) and ML-4 (Gwadar) as well, it added.
During the past year, Railways had also introduced live tracking system, provided free Wi-Fi facility at major stations as well as initiated establishment of state-of-the-art command and control centre at Lahore Headquarters to bring safety, efficiency and improvement in the railway network.
“Pakistan Railways has introduced free ticket facility extended for four trips per year to passengers aged 75 years or more. Discount 50 percent on tickets for passengers aged 65 years,” it said. However, E-ticketing was modernized by incorporating mobile phone apps and e-payments.
Renovation and up-gradation of Lahore, Hasan Abdal and Nankana Sahib Railway Stations was also being carried out during this period.
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