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China offers assistance

for Pak Railways

rehabilitation

ISLAMABAD: China has offered financial and technical assistance for the rehabilitation of Pakistan Railways, Chairman PR Lt. Gen. Javed Ashraf (Retd) said.

The offer was formally made to the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf during his last visit to China. The rehabilitation plan includes renovation of railways engines, tracks and coaches.

China, he said will also help Pakistan in carrying out an emergency plan, which aimed at developing the Railways on sound-footing.

Javed Ashraf told APP here on Monday, that further negotiation is in process to finalise the details of the cooperation between the two countries.

He said, "we have already made an emergency plan for renovation of various services of PR." Under the plan, he explained one train will be renovated after every three months.

At present, he said, 'Tezgam' is under the process of renovation. The Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf is likely to inaugurate the renovated train in March 23.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Railways have recovered an amount of Rs 0.5 million from 45,000 ticketless passengers, travelling on various routes, during the last ten days.

This illegal practice was going on over the years, mainly in connivance with the railway-staff, without any effective check.

It simply speaks the magnitude of corruption and mismanagement, rampant in government-run department.

This situation led Railways to colossal financial loss, which has reached to Rs 3.5 billion annually.

The ticketless travelling has been showing upward trend despite the fact that there are hundreds of ticket-checkers working round-the-clock to book ticketless travellers.

The chairman Pakistan Railways determined to purge the department of corruption, has warned that the special checking will not be a regular feature, and free travelling would not be allowed any longer.

He has already directed for undertaking surveillance against the ticketless travellers with more strength.

It is learnt that the ticket checkers are not the solely responsible for this illegal practice but certain other incidents show that other PR staff besides the Railway police are also involved in this practice.

The chairman said the ticket-checkers, responsible for the corruption are being taken to the task.

To curb the corruption, he said metal pass system, which was enforced since the era of British rule for the PR officers are being abolished forthwith.

He said the officers, authorised for the travelling on free passes, could now avail the facility, on showing of national identity cards and the authority letter from their department concerned.

The action, he added, was taken after receiving massive complaints about the misuse of the metal passes.ÑAPP