ADVANCED

RAWILWAY
ENGINEERINGSubmitted To:
ASSIGNMENT # 3
Sir Abdul Rahim
Rajar

Submitted By:
2017
Ahmed Ziyad

2017 MS TE - 18
 2017 MS TE - 18

HOW DOES PAKISTAN RAILWAYS MANAGE ITS ASSETS?

1. Asset Management in Railways

Asset management for the railway infrastructure is fundamentally about delivering the

outputs valued by customers, funders, and other key stakeholders, in a sustainable way, for

the lowest whole life cost. The main features of asset management in railways are as follows:

1. It explicitly focuses maintenance, renewal and enhancement activities on delivering

sustainable outputs valued by customers and funding providers at the lowest whole-

life cost, as opposed to prioritizing work predominantly according to the condition.

2. It provides an integrating mechanism that crosses boundaries between and where

relevant, between the infrastructure manager and contacting organizations.

3. It places a greater emphasis on evidence-based decision making, using knowledge of

how assets degrade and fail to optimize maintenance and renewal interventions. The

potential benefits from applying an asset management approach are numerous and

significant. They include the creation of line of sight between strategy and

implementation, the capability to deliver the same level of sustainable performance

with reduced volumes of work, and the demonstration to external stakeholders that

activities are being undertaken at lowest whole life cost.

2. Asset Management in Pakistan Railways

In developed countries, it can be seen that railway departments do not completely manage all

the railway assets rather various contracts have been awarded to third parties which manage

all the assigned assets. For example, there is a separate contract and company which manages

the railway network and another separate company under another contract manages the

platforms and stations. In short, the railway departments of the majority of developed

countries such as the United Kingdom, have sublet the asset management to third parties.

When it comes to Pakistan Railways, this trend cannot be found. There is a separate ministry

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of Pakistan Railways which manages and controls all the assets of Pakistan Railway. The

structure of Pakistan Railways which manages and controls all the assets is given on the next

page. Ministry of Pakistan Railways is governed by Federal Government. It would not be

wrong to say that Pakistan Railways manage their assets in form of a central system which

looks after all the assets and this central system is Ministry of Pakistan Railways.

2.1. Directorates of Pakistan Railways

There are four directorates of Pakistan Railways which are managing the assets of Pakistan

Railways. These are listed as under:

i. Administrative Directorate
ii. Technical Directorate
iii. Planning Directorate
iv. Finance Directorate

The main objectives of these directorates include movement and priority in respect of defense

traffic, maintenance of railway lines for strategic reasons, negotiations with international

organizations and other countries and implementation of agreements, with them, coordination

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of development projects of railways as a part of the National Development Programme,

standardization and specifications of materials and stores, overall efficiency and safety of

Railways and coordination of Rail movements into and from Ports.

2.2. Divisions of Pakistan Railways

These four directorates manage a network of Railways of Pakistan in seven evenly divided

zones. These zones are:

i. Lahore
ii. Multan
iii. Rawalpindi
iv. Karachi
v. Sukkur
vi. Peshawar
vii. Quetta
2.3. Current assets of Pakistan Railways

The list of assets which are currently being managed by Pakistan Railways is given as under:

i. Manufacturing services & units

ii. Maintenance and Repair Workshops
iii. Carriage & locomotive workshops
iv. Sleeper manufacturing factories
v. Track rehabilitation & improvement workshops
vi. Railway academies
vii. Signaling systems
viii. Radio and telephonic communication systems
ix. Railway network extended throughout the country
x. Railway locomotives
2.4. How exactly Pakistan Railway Manages its assets?

In order to define the exact methodology behind asset management of Pakistan Railways,

consider the organogram of Pakistan Railways shown below:

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According to this organogram, Ministry of Railways, as a whole, manages all the assets of

Pakistan Railways. Under Minister of Railways, there are three other members i.e. Secretary

Railway Board, Secretary Railways and Member Finance. Out of these three personals,

Secretary Railways and Member Finance share the major responsibility of asset management

with former carrying out duties of physical asset management and the former sharing the

responsibility of managing financial assets. DG Operations, DG Technical and DG planning

further share the responsibility of physical asset management. DG operations manage assets

such as ticketing, routing, and operations. The management and control of physical assets

such as railway track and locomotives come under the jurisdiction of DG Technical whereas

DG planning looks after the future expansion of railways which can add more value to

existing projects.

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