Tag: Railway

  • Pakistan to receive $13 billion in financial assistance from China and Saudi Arabia

    Pakistan to receive $13 billion in financial assistance from China and Saudi Arabia

    Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister of Finance, has said that Pakistan’s two closest friends, China and Saudi Arabia, will contribute a multibillion-dollar financial package to assist Pakistan with its shaky economy.

    According to the Finance Minister, both countries will grant Pakistan a $13 billion package.

    According to The News, Dar went on to say that China intends to contribute $8.8 billion in assistance, including loan rollovers, during the current fiscal year, and that it will also roll over $4 billion in deposit returns.

    In addition, Ishaq Dar indicated that it will provide $3.3 billion in commercial loans and $1.45 billion in additional financing.

    Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is expected to contribute an extra $4.2 billion in aid, including $3 billion in new reserves and a delayed payment oil facility, according to the Finance Minister. He declared that the Kingdom would construct a petrochemical facility in Gwadar.

    Furthermore, the Minister stated that both countries have guaranteed Pakistan’s Prime Minister (PM), Shehbaz Sharif, of their support and will continue to do so till June 2023.

    Furthermore, China has promised that construction on CPEC’s key railway projects, Main Line 1 (ML-1) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), will begin shortly.

  • Pakistan Railways paying Rs35 billion pension to unverified employees annually

    Pakistan Railways paying Rs35 billion pension to unverified employees annually

    About 115,000 Pakistan Railways (PR) retired employees who have not been verified have been receiving annual pensions totaling Rs35 billion, according to research by the government-funded Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), a think tank housed within the Planning Commission.

    It revealed in a statement yesterday that between 2015 and 2020, Pakistan Railways lost Rs144 billion. A deficit of Rs44 billion in 2020, which includes Rs36 billion for the pensions of 120,000 PR employees, is included in the losses, according to Dawn.

    According to the PIDE report, the PR also received a subsidy from the government in 2020 worth Rs45 billion to make up for these losses.

    Due to the intense competition from the road transportation industry and PR’s inability to implement a customer-centric business strategy due to a complicated bureaucratic structure, the public agency has been inefficient, underfunded, and overstaffed for the past 35 years, making losses.

    The study also noted that 115,000 unverified PR retirees receive an annual pension of Rs35 billion. To solve the problem, a biometric verification system to confirm the pensioners in question has been proposed.

    A Pay and Pension Commission (PPC) has also been established in this respect, and it will take into account issues pertaining to the railways and other public organizations.

  • Pakistan Railway offers 30 per cent fare discount for Eid-ul-Azha

    Pakistan Railway offers 30 per cent fare discount for Eid-ul-Azha

    To assist travellers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, Pakistan Railways has offered a 30 per cent discount on train tickets.

    A notice posted states that all customers travelling by train during the three days of Eid-ul-Azha would be eligible for the reduced tickets. The notification stated that the PR had begun accepting reservations for Eid at discounted rates.

    In a separate announcement, Pakistan Railways stated that three special trains would run on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.

    Before Eid-ul-Azha, three special trains would run on various routes, according to the PR department. A spokeswoman for the Railway stated that on July 8, the first special train would leave at 10 am. It would pass via Multan, Sahiwal, and Lahore from Quetta to Peshawar.

    He added that the second special train would depart Karachi for Lahore at 6:45 pm on July 8 and take a route through Multan and Faisalabad.

    On July 13 at 11:30 am, the third special train for Eid would depart from Lahore and travel via Faisalabad and Multan to arrive in Karachi.

  • Number of railway passengers increases after hike in bus fares

    Number of railway passengers increases after hike in bus fares

    The number of train passengers has enhanced as the cost of travelling by bus or private vehicle has elevated owing to skyrocketing fuel costs.

    Despite a slight increase in railway fares, a spokesperson for Pakistan Railways said that there was no comparison between train fares and bus or other forms of road transportation.

    According to AFP, Pakistan Railways had to jack up ticket prices by 10 per cent on some trains, but train travel was still affordable and convenient.

    On the other hand, due to an increase in petroleum prices throughout the country, bus fares have soared in the last month.

    Sardar Nasir, a passenger at the Lahore railway station, told this scribe that taking a bus with his family was too expensive, so he decided to take the train to Rawalpindi instead.

    Another passenger on the Allama Iqbal Express train to Bahawalpur with her family, explained that the pricing for Bahawalpur by bus was nearly doubled, so she chose to commute by train.

    The booking receptionist at the Faisalabad train station validated that train ticket sales had surged following the increase in petroleum product prices.