Govt aims to address freight share imbalance between road and rail sectors: ADP

ISLAMABAD, Jun 12 (APP):The government has planned to make a considerate effort to address the freight share imbalance between road and rail sectors through provision of adequate funding for the Rail sector with focus to improve the reliability and time efficiency for the railways. The project of ML-I upgrdation under CPEC
framework will be implemented, said a budgetary document released on Friday.
According to Annual Development Plan, multimodal and integrated system of transport will be
developed to economize the cost of traveling and improving the system. A significant shift of freight towards railways to achieve optimal utilization of its inherent capacity would be necessary to reduce relative transportation costs. The benefits would be maximized if roads become a preferred means of transport for high-value and short-haul freight and
Rail Network for long-haul and heavy cargo. The National Transport Policy , 2018 would pave the
way for betterment of the Transport network of Pakistan. An integrated systems approach will be developed during the Plan to ensure improved performance of the National Transportation Network. On the one hand, maximum stress will be laid on optimal utilization of the existing capacity of the system by rehabilitation and better maintenance of assets as well as enforcement of efficient operational techniques and managerial practices; on the other, capacity expansion will follow the
optimal intermodal traffic allocation.
Availability of required financing for the infrastructure projects has been a problem area, since huge capital costs are involved. While sufficient PSDP allocations are provided, the available resources cannot meet the demand fully, therefore, government is pursuing new and alternative modes of financing primarily Public Private Partnership and Build
Operate-Transfer modes.
Under Ministry of Communications; an allocation of Rs110.4 billion has been made for NHA, while National Transport Research Centre has been allocated Rs0.075 billion.
An allocation of Rs110.4 billion has been made for NHA. Priority has been given to ongoing projects and new important projects have been included in NHA’s portfolio.
The Government, cognizant of the importance of the Transport systems,is investing large
amounts of human and financial resources into the development of the transport sector. Such investments are being supported through foreign funding / investments envisaged in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) programme, the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme and other foreign-assisted initiatives. Further,
work on innovative modes of investments such as Public Private Partnership has been initiated and
the projects having high financial rate of return are being explored and initiated for procuring financing through these
innovative methods.
In PSDP 2019-20 provided an outlay of Rs184.7 billion for federal programme under transport and logistics sector. Against this, an expenditure of Rs229.1 billion is expected to be incurred by the end 2019-20, giving an overall utilization of 124 percent . The expenditure over and above, allocated amount is due to the foreign aid disbursements more than
anticipated in case of NHA foreign funded projects.
Against an allocation of Rs12.2 billion for 26 schemes of Railways, an expenditure of Rs8.3 billion is
expected to be incurred during 2019-20, giving utilization of 68 percent. The focus was on the
improvement of existing infrastructure, signalling system, and procurement and manufacture of
rolling-stock like locomotives including high horse powers locos, coaches, and bogie wagons.
Under Ministry of Communications; six schemes of National Transport Research Centre (NTRC),
Rs0.09 billion were allocated against which an expenditure of Rs0.09 billion has been incurred by
the end of 2019-20. 84 schemes of NHA were allocated Rs154.9 billion against which an
expenditure of Rs207.6 billion has been incurred by the end of 019-20, showing utilisation of
about 133 percent. The over and above expenditure is due to foreign aid disbursement of
Rs112.76 billion against the allocated amount of Rs58.9 billion.