Pak Railway Thesis

Pakistan Railways, lifeline of the country, is a national state-run transport service. It is under the administration of federal government and its head quarter is in Lahore. It is an important source of transportation throughout Pakistan. It carries millions of passengers throughout the country. It used to carry huge freight in Pakistan. This cheap and safe mode for passengers is now facing a number of issues. A number of services of Pakistan Railways have been cancelled, suspended or terminated and many more will be suspended in near future because of mismanagement and shortage of locomotives, fuel and money. The chapter of all major services, from Lahore to Karachi, has been closed. It is pertinent to mention that all AC serviceshave been stopped. The incompetent administration has failed to attain locomotives from any quarter of the world. Passengers are suffering due to mismanagement of administration. Pakistan Railways decision to suspend goods train service due to severe shortage of locomotives and fuel is another blow to this organization. It is now basically financially bankrupt organization. In other words it is on the verge of financial collapse.

The political interference, nepotism, corruption, poor maintenance of tracks & bridges and mismanagement in almost every field are the major causes of failure of Pakistan Railways. Pakistan Railways purchased 69 completely built locomotive units from China under 2003 agreement. These are about 37% cheaper than the European locomotives but considered to be faulty. It is stated that 32 of these have already been scraped. Dong Fang Electric Corporation has been severely criticized for producing low quality locomotives. The other viewpoint is that misuse of the machinery was the major cause of the failure of Chinese locomotives. According to Sheikh Rashid, the former railway minister, crankshafts of locomotives worth Rs10 million were damaged because of the use of substandard lubrication oil.

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