Govt struggling to revive Railways, Civil Aviation, PIA: Saad

Lahore: Federal Minister for Railways and Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique Saturday said the government is striving hard to revive the Pakistan Railways, Civil Aviation and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) despite the short period of the government, while addressing a press conference held at the Pakistan Railways headquarters.

He strongly condemned the negative propaganda against the railway and other departments stating that recently a propaganda news was published by a local newspaper without facts and added that the coaches were imported after observing strict standards.

Saad said that: “46 coaches had been imported from China on transfer of technology basis while the rest of the coaches would be made in the railways carriage factory”.

The minister stated that it was a routine job that the Pakistan Railway reviewed and test every imported product so did the railway did in this case and found a minor issue which would be corrected by the Chinese engineers at their own cost.

Saad Rafique further stated: “The Railways had earned Rs 28.23 billion between July and December and the department had to bear a loss of Rs 7 billion due to the unexpected flood in the country while infrastructure of about Rs 500 billion was damaged”.

The federal government had given Rs 21 billion subsidy to the railways, even though the railways had to pay pension to its pensioners from its own earning which was actually a difficult business, he added.

He said that the earning of the railways was Rs 155 million while expenditures were Rs 190 million per day.

The minister said that the PR had moved to the Supreme Court against the ban on land utilization, adding if the ban was lifted then fine otherwise land grabbers could grab the railways land.

Talking about the Civil Aviation, the minister informed that the government was out-sourcing operations of three airports according to the international model like United Kingdom, Germany, Europe, Delhi and Mombay.

He clarified that no airport was being privatized and propaganda on the issue was actual enmity with the country and damaging for the state.

The minister said: “The operators from Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries would participate in the open biding and the airports would be out-sourced on the best offer”.

He said that the out-sourcing of the airports would bring foreign investment in the country.

PIA was an ill department, however, it was correctable and the current government would succeeded in reviving this department, he hoped.

He said that food quality in the planes was being improved adding that seven out of 14 A3T20 airplanes had been made operational and likewise 10 out of 12 Boeing 777 would be operational soon.

He said that work on seats and infotainment was also in progress in the planes.

The minister hoped that routs for 15 airports of Europe would soon be opened for the PIA and it would bring business for the airlines.