Decades After Independence, Pakistan’s Railways Like India’s In Dire Need of Reform

An effective and robust transport system is a necessity for economic development. The British empire of nineteenth century knew that and to fulfill its enormous logistic requirements it built a strategically designed railways network across the subcontinent. Railroads have proved to be the most economical mode of land transport that is best suited for both passenger and freight requirements. After independence this railways system played a vital role in linking the whole country.

The main rail route in Pakistan runs from Karachi to Peshawar via Lahore and Rawalpindi and is 11,740 kilometers while main line branches northwestward from Sukkur to Quetta. This route was built by the British and after more than sixty years of neglect, corruption and ill planning, Pakistan railways like most other institutions of our country is in shambles.

A few new routes that were started with great fanfare are now completely out of order and even the railway tracks have disappeared into the bank balances of corrupt officials and politicians many of whom have squandered away the nation’s wealth on ridiculous purchases of railway carriages that do not even fit the operational tracks in Pakistan. Today, rail travel in Pakistan is synonym to long delays, insecurity, scandals and an utter lack of facilities and capacity. Almost the entire railway system is outdated and the colonial era railway stations have never been updated to meet the current requirements. Commuter trains for urban areas which are now becoming the most extensively used form railway travel have only been introduced in Karachi but is not enough and well planned to meet the city’s requirements.

When we look at the Indian railway system which comprising of 62,800 km of track length is one of the most extensive in the world and the world’s most heavily used system in terms of the distance traveled each year by passengers. Like Pakistan India’s rail system is also entirely government-owned and only a few new tracks have been added over the course of past sixty years. But in contrast to Pakistan the Indian railroads have been maintained and improved considerably over the years and narrow-gauged tracks have been replaced by broad-gauged tracks while multiple track lines have been added to previous single lines. Moreover, Indian railways also introduced commuter trains for Calcutta in 1989 which at the time was South Asia’s first subway line. Since then almost all large Indian cities have introduced their own commuter transport trains. All this investment of Indian government and proper checks and balances have paid off for the Indians and it is now an important revenue generating institution of India while facilitating in faster growth of industry and economy.