ADB suggests policy reforms to strengthen railways in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has identified six policy reforms to strengthen railway system in Pakistan and across the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) region saying that railways across the region must consider implementing key reforms that would make them more efficient and financially sustainable.

A new study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) assessed the state of CAREC railways and identified opportunities for investment, commercialization and reform.

By implementing key reforms, railways across the region can help increase economic growth and improve the lives of ordinary people.

According to the study, Pakistan railways has 466 locomotives and 16,159 freight wagons out of which 23% of locomotives and 24% of wagons are unserviceable.

The study said most of the regional railways currently use accounting systems that do not follow internationally recognized commercial standards. These old systems cannot accurately measure the true financial performance of railway entities or separate the financial performance of each business activity.

The region's railways must develop modern commercial accounting systems that provide reliable and transparent real-time information about costs, revenues, and financial performance. Strengthening staff expertise in operating the system and using it to analyze railway performance is also crucial.

Furthermore, railways need to introduce enterprise resource planning systems to help them adopt more commercial approaches that would increase productivity and profitability.

These systems also help railway planners to maintain an overview of existing railway resources such as staff or rolling stock and determine more efficient ways of using them.

They can be used to determine the full cost of operating railway services and routes, which is necessary to optimize tariff levels and understand which routes are most profitable. They are used to monitor and improve productivity and asset utilization, and ultimately increase profitability.

Likewise, nearly all the CAREC member countries regulate railway freight tariffs. While CAREC railways do not face competition from other railways operating in their domestic market, they compete with road transport and long-distance railway freight services using other railway corridors.

For railways to operate in this competitive setting, CAREC countries should consider liberalizing tariff regulations so the railways can adjust their tariffs in...