ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has earned an amount of Rs41 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year 2023-24 despite facing the challenges of floods during monsoon season and financial crunch.

During the first six months of the previous fiscal year (2022-23), the department had generated Rs28 billion which reflected 46 percent increase in the revenues during the same period in the current fiscal year (2023-24).

As per the figures, he said that out of the revenue of Rs41 billion, earnings from passenger trains were recorded at Rs24 billion whereas the freight sector managed to earn Rs11 billion. The official said that other sectors of the department added around Rs5.5 billion to the total revenue generation. At present, he said that Pakistan Railways is operating 96 passenger trains, up from the previous year when 86 trains were running.

Similarly, during the previous year, on average it operated 3.75 freight trains while the number reached seven freight trains this year. He said the department emphasized that the issue of delay in payment of salaries to employees has now been resolved and things will be more streamlined, once work on the Mainline-I (ML-I) project kicks off.

The official said that owing to inflationary pressures, led by high fuel costs, Pakistan Railways has increased its fares, both for passenger and freight segments that would help the cash-strapped corporation to fetch better revenues in the next few months.

To a question, he said that Pakistan Railways has beefed up precautionary measures to reduce passenger train accidents and only six minor accidents with no causality took place on the entire railway network in the country during the last three months.

“Only two train accidents have taken place in September, no accident happened in October and four train accidents occurred in November due to effective steps of the department,” he added.

The drastic decrease in accidents has been witnessed due to the efforts being undertaken to reduce trespassing at unmanned level crossings and unauthorized locations, he added.

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“Our staff is continuously monitoring the railway tracks across the country and conducting thorough inspection of the trains as the safety of the passengers is the top priority of the department,” he said.