Lahore (Web Desk): Minster for Railways and Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique on Saturday reiterated his commitment to reduce the volume of losses in Railways and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and make them profitable entities by taking effective steps.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the minister said that infrastructure of Railways worth Rs500 billion has been destroyed due to the unprecedented floods in the country.
Highlighting the vision to steer the Pakistan Railways from the current challenges, Khawaja Saad Rafique said that branding of the railway stations could prove useful to generate revenue and optical fiber would be laid through the revenue sharing formula.
He expressed the hope that the country will acquire Rs40 billion from Geneva Conference for Railways which will be spent for the maintenance of tracks.
Saad Rafique said that railways land will be used for commercial purposes to generate mammoth revenue and review petition has already been filed in Supreme Court (SC) in this regard.
Rejecting the baseless propaganda about the fitness of railways coaches imported from China, the minister said that these coaches were purchased from China through transfer of technology mode and now coaches and freight wagons will be manufactured in Pakistan.
In order to streamline the function of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Saad Rafique said that the government has decided to outsource the operations of three important airports to a certain time period as per the international standards.
He further said that International Financial Corporation (IFC) will provide assistance in this regard.
The minister also categorically dispelled the impression to privatize any airport of the country.
He revealed the vision of competition of international operators through competitive bidding as it will ensure the greater level of transparency.