Transport Policy in few weeks
from The Nation, Monday October 2, 2000

ISLAMABAD - The government will hopefully announce Transport Policy in the current month if the World Bank expedites the plan. This was stated by Javed Ashraf, Minister for Railways and Communications, in an exclusive interview with The Nation.

He said, "It got delayed due to World Bank interaction. The draft is with them. The delay is on their part. We are quite ready to go ahead with it. Even today (Sept 25) I have issued orders to remind the WB to expedite it. The WB team of consultants which has been working on it, has been asked to expedite it. I am in hurry because we would like to have clear-cut Transport Policy and then go ahead with it. And hopefully in a month's time this whole process will be completed and we will be announcing it with roads and railways under one head. 

Privatization of Ports and Airports
About the privatization of airports and ports he was of the view that the government was taking steps in this direction and modalities are being worked out. He said, " The Government is gradually moving towards privatization. So is the policy in Pakistan that as far as possible the institutions should be run through the private hands. Thus the government has taken decision that more and more organizations should be handed over to private sector. As far as airports are concerned they are not in my domain. They are under the Ministry of Defense. However a policy has been formulated that the air sector should be privatized. For ports we are working on the land lord concept. The work involved is of different kind such as management of ports itself, services, handling of cargo and so on. Mostly it will be handed over to the private sector. It will be phased privatization. First the services then operations, retaining the infrastructure then part on the infrastructure gradually may be passed on the private hands. The Government might retain only what is of strategic importance. 

Railways role as carrier of cargo
About the railways role, he said that the government has been trying to expand in this direction as it is a profitable business, and little had been done earlier. He said, "we are trying to expand this as all cargo businesses in the world are profitable and one has to get subsidiary from cargo, but we don't have enough wagons. We are trying to float international tenders in the next two months, asking suppliers for more locomotives and as well as bigger capacity wagons to carry more freight. We have tried to carry considerable amount of oil this year. As PARCO refinery is online and its pipeline is not being ready, most of the oil is being carried by us which is 1.5 million tones. We are also giving high priority to procurements of 350 high capacity oil barrels, something which was not done to this scale. We will be carrying more and more oil for the country. At present, our share has dwindled to just about 11 percent of the total cargo of the country. We should be able to carry about 25 percent of the cargo in the coming years., and Inshallah we would be able to do it.

Deterioration in Railways
He confessed that Railways has deteriorated a lot due to mismanagement and not giving due importance to it and not spending enough fund on it. He added: " Pakistan Railway is deteriorated immensely due to mismanagement of railway authorities and previous governments' policies. We are rectifying both. The government has declared it as the primary mean of transportation. This can be translated in a better way if and when funds are available. We have formulated some plans and they will be put into action as soon as funds are available. Most of the work includes correcting the old infrastructure which includes the rail, locomotive and rolling stock, both for passengers and locomotives. Today, we have enough passengers asking for traveling by train. We have enough freight but the pity is that we do not have enough wagons to carry them. Our Railway tracks till till 200 miles need replacements. At some places we need to double the tracks. Owing to our strict measures 13,000 people have voluntarily have left Railways, who were corrupt. As ID cards are made compulsory, only 93,000 pensioners contacted us, who are genioun workers. We have started Safari train from Peshawer to Landikotal for foreigners. Our web site Pakrail.com gives the comprehensive information about Railways, which is updated every four hours a day. All the railway stations are renovated and steam locomotives have been displayed in front of them. Only reservation cannot be made through the web site. Rest of the information is there. I would like people to go on the railway stations and see changes themselves. We are trying to make this a profitable organization."

Synergies between Railways and Port Authorities
About this, he said that they have got excellent relations with port authorities who are helping in facilitating the country's trade. He said, " We have no problem with the port authorities. In fact we have very good coordination with them. Previously, there were some problems due to the old rolling stocks lying in the Karachi port but it has been disposed of or sold off as scrap. We have cleared the port congestion. Now both the departments are under me, which should have been done earlier. I will request the government to merge the two ministries and make one Transportation Ministry, having the NHA (National Highway Authority), the ports and Railways under one head. This will ensure better coordination and facilitate interaction.

Gawadar Port
When asked about the current situation on Gawadar Port and looking at other option at other options at the same time he said that as sanctions were imposed on Pakistan so this project could not be completed in time. But the Government was working at other options. He said, 'We are going ahead with it. We are short of funds. There are not many people who have bid to go ahead with this project. Major reason behind the sanctions is not signing the CTBT. Once the curbs are lifted, many more will come through. In the meantime, we are considering if Ormara could be developed in Phase-I and in Phase-II Gawadar can come up. Both these ports must come on stream one day or the other. In Ormara, we have one advantage that the Navy has already built it partially and if it is expanded to take commercial cargo also the this project can come on stream much earlier then Gawadar. Also it will be more accessible. 

State control over Ports & Railways
When asked if it was a good idea to have state control over ports and Railways he said that every thing in private hands can hit back also and a few thing should remain in Government's control, so that it may be not be blackmailed by the private sector and the state' strategic needs can be met. For example, in times of war most of the strategic reserves of Pakistan are carried by Railways. If it is in private hands the response may not be as good to this sort of activity as would be if it is in public sector. The infrastructure always remains in the state's hands, which is retained around the world, giving way the operations and services. We have made this amendment that we will also retain the infrastructure and also the oil traffic. For example when oil-tanker owners threatened to go on strike, extended only last month, the government was really worried about it and the only alternative was to use Railways. Thus if this is given to them it will be very vulnerable in future. In ports also, some portions which are of strategic need has to be retained as the Navy has to use them.'

National Shipping Corporation 
About this he said that it is a sick organization, but the Government is taking steps to improve it. There are no tankers to carry oil traffic, but things are being put right. He said: 'Unfortunately this is a sick organization. Instead of making progress, it has decayed over the years. It used to have a much greater number of ships that it has now. In fact we should be taking the whole cargo of the country in its tankers, but it charters foreign tankers to do it and a lot of foreign exchange is wasted it only has one aged tanker and that even is lying for want of repairs. I have ordered for its immediate repairs and utlise it.. In the meantime, we are trying to get a second-hand tanker as we cannot afford a new one to atleast immediately carry 50% of the oil traffic. We also approached the local shippers that they should come in the field and buy oil tankers, so that we do not pay to foreign shippers. Once this is materialized, we will be carrying oil ourselves. NSC is in need of reforms and Insha Allah I would be undertaking it. Some who are contacted have asked for certain concessions but we are not the final authority. But we would like to help them if their demands are reasonable.

On deplorable road condition
He commented on this as it being a provincial governments issue, the ministry could not do much. But now priorities are being set and NHA will do everything to improve it. He said: 'The roads are a provincial subject. My Ministry only deals with the inter-provincial roads, which cross from one province to another, which are national highways and lately motorways. In Baluchistan, for example, a bulk of roads which exist are national highways, built by us and maintained by us. They are major arteries which connect Quetta with Karachi.. Zahidan and Quetta to the rest of country such as Sukkur and so on. The interior of Baluchistan can be opened by building roads by the provincial government. We would like to take up more road projects, from Gwader to Ormara, linking them with the existing road structure. We might be building a railway line one day. But it is expensive and immediately doing it is difficult, but we must do it if the port has to become functional and cargo flowing from Afghanistan and Central Asia. More time was spent on building new roads instead of maintain old ones. It has resulted in road deterioration. We now have said that all money generated from toll tax will be spent on maintaing the motorways. This plan was not discussed with anyone and was not feasible. Thus the motorway is paying only the 10 percent of its expenditure. We will not undertake any project unless it is of extreme national importance. All future NHA projects will go through normal check and balances so that such projects are not undertaken. In Northern Areas, its Councils will be building its own roads. Still the roads which exists are built by either the army or NHA. Some more roads are planned but it is matter of availability of funds.


Coordination between Road & Railways
On this he said, 'Most pf roads and railway is concentrated in a 50 mile corridor running north to south and so the east and west got neglected. This motorways, railways, road and even Indus Highway exists here. Thus had these under one hand there would have been a much better coordination. Thus now under one head. National Transport Research Cell which was unutilized will now be and a comprehensive transport policy will be formulated in an integrated manner. Railways mostly will be used as mode of transportation being 1/6th in expenditure. This all will be addressed under one Ministry and one coordinator.