The government has failed to finalise what would be the first national transport policy within the stipulated time, and would take one more year to complete the task, it is learnt.
Sources in the Communication Ministry told Business Recorder that the much-awaited transport policy, which had to be completed in 2006, was most likely to be finalised next year. The transport sector currently accounts for 11 percent of GDP, 16 percent of fixed investment, 35 percent of the total annual energy use, and about 15 percent of the Public Sector Development Program.
Although Pakistan has a road network of 258,000 km (including 9,500 km national highway and motorways), the road density is low for a population of 156 million people and an area of 796,000 sq km. Total public expenditure on roads is over Rs 33 billion a year, with 65 percent on national highways.
There are also about 7.0 million vehicles on road, which are projected to increase to 21 million by 2030. Pakistan Railways has about 10,000 km track but it is performing below its commercial potential.
The two major ports handle over 41 million tons annually apart from container traffic. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been offering technical assistance for formulation of a comprehensive and integrated transport policy to develop an efficient mode of communication by improving and developing existing rail and road infrastructure.
Sources said the draft of the national transport policy was still incomplete, and scores of issues are yet to be resolved with the stakeholders. When contacted, Communications Minister Shamim Siddiqi conceded that there was delay in finalisation of the transport policy. He said the ADB wanted to take all the stakeholders on board, which resulted in further delay.
He said that some stakeholders were earlier not part of the process, but now the government has decided to take all of them on board. He expressed hope that the policy would, most probably, be ready in next June, after almost one year. Under the policy, he said, better co-ordinated use of various modes of transport would be facilitated, including road, rail, ports and air traffic.
The Planning Commission in Annual Plan 2007-08 had expressed fear that inefficient and outdated transport and communication infrastructure could not support 7 percent growth which the government was hoping to achieve.
The Planning Commission said that the existing infrastructure, which is quite unsuitable even by the present standards, would have to be updated to international standards in scale, quality and management efficiencies within the next five to six years so that it could be used optimally.