Pakistan Railways achieves record earnings in FY2023-24

KARACHI: In the first half of the financial year 2023-24, Pakistan Railway has achieved a historic increase in its revenue as the earnings surged to Rs 41 billion, ARY News reported.

Pakistan Railway witnessed an earning of Rs 41 billion in the first half of the financial year 2023-24 against Rs 28 billion in the same period last year.

“Things will get better after the launch of the ML1 project,” the CEO of Pakistan Railway added.

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Aamir Baloch, CEO of Pakistan Railways, further added that the timeliness of salary disbursements for railway employees has been improved, ensuring that delays have been minimized, and payments will be disbursed timely.

The CEO expressed that this year the railway will try to further enhance its services and an expansion of travel facilities.

Last year in December, Pakistan Railways has significantly raised the Right of Way (ROW) charges for a single-track crossing to Rs. 3.8 million for five years which would help the department to generate more revenue.

Historically, Pakistan Railways charged Rs. 100,000 per track crossing for 10 years when telecom operators installed fiber broadband, the state news agency reported.

In 2007, they said the charges were increased to Rs. 2.7 million for five years, as the use of fiber broadband expanded.

However, in 2022, the PTI-led government reduced the crossing charges to Rs. 600,000 per crossing for a lifetime to promote fiber broadband.

They said that in contrast, cable TV operators continue to pay only Rs. 100 per year.