The Finance Ministry finally yielded to the Ministry of Railways’ persistent persuasion on Friday and agreed to release a Rs 11.5 billion bailout package for the Pakistan Railways as earlier approved by the federal cabinet in December last year.
Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh on Friday assured Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour that the money would be released by the end of next month.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Railways, its minister, in a meeting, pleaded his case for undue delay in the release of Rs 11.5 billion allocated by the federal cabinet for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the Railways.
Shaikh asked the railways minister to move a PC-1 of the projects the ministry was planning to execute from allocated funds to the Finance Ministry for approval.
”Bilour said had the Finance Ministry released the funds on time, the Railways would have repaired around 80 locomotives,” it said.
Briefing the finance minister, Bilour said Railways would spend Rs 6.1 billion on maintenance of 145 locomotives, Rs 2 billion each on rehabilitation of tracks and coaches and Rs one billion would be reserved for future use.
He said after maintenance, 75 percent of the locomotives would be used for freight carrying and the rest of the 25 percent for passenger coaches. According to estimates, a locomotive of 3,000 horsepower generates up to Rs 60 million per annum against Rs 50.5 million by the one with 2,000 horsepower.