By Syed Marwan Shah ISLAMABAD, March 09 (INP-WealthPK): The Senate Standing Committee on Railways has approved the Rs46.3 billion proposal presented by the Pakistan Railways (PR) under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2022-23) for financing the ongoing and the new projects. Briefing the committee members, Amir Ali Baloch, PR’s director general planning said, of the total amount proposed under PSDP, Rs37.850 billion had been allocated for 28 ongoing projects, which makes 81.7% of the total amount. He said Rs8.45 billion had been proposed for the 17 new schemes/projects, accounting for 18.3% of the total proposed amount, according to WealthPK. Ali Baloch further told the committee members that Rs21.74 billion was allocated for 29 ongoing projects during the current fiscal year 2021-22, and Rs8.2 billion for the nine new schemes. So, the total allocated funds were around Rs30 billion in the current fiscal year. He also informed the committee about the measures taken to ensure good governance, business development, rolling stock availability, infrastructure development, and revenue generation. The lawmakers were informed that the ministry of railways was taking efforts to ensure profitability of the railways.  

Sector Wise Allocation 2022-23
Sector	Amount (PKR in Billion)	Percent
Rolling Stock Availability	29.65	64.04
Locomotives	3
Carriages and Wagons	26.65
Infrastructure Development	15.45	33.37
Track	13.25
Signaling and Telecom	2.2
Business Development	0.55	1.19
Terminal Development	0.45
Stations Improvements	0.1
Governance	0.65	1.4
Institutional Strengthening	0.65
Total	46.3	100

  The ministry of railways also presented the sector-wise allocation, proposing Rs650 million for governance, Rs550 million for business development, and Rs15 billion for infrastructure development, including track and signalling. The ministry has also allocated Rs29 billion for the rolling stock availability, including locomotives (Rs3 billion), carriages and wagons (Rs26 billion). Talking about the railway revenues, railways minister Azam Khan Swati told the committee that PR had earned the highest-ever revenue of Rs700 million from lease of railways land in the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year. He said the ministry expected to achieve its target of Rs2 billion revenue from the land lease by the end of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, talking to WealthPK, Mr. Swati said his ministry would soon launch a passenger train on the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul route, bringing huge foreign components to the country. Senator Mohammad Qasim chaired the committee meeting. The committee members asked the railway officials to expedite work on the ongoing projects so they could be completed within the stipulated time.