Exploring
greater rail connectivity with India
By Saif Asif Khan
Last month, Pakistan participated in a meeting of the railway authorities of the
Economic Cooperation Organization countries in Ankara. The ensuing discussions and resulting press release have made it evident that the original Registered Community Design member countries, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, plan to bolster their rail links in the coming few months, with the Islamabad-Istanbul cargo service to be hopefully recommenced shortly. Pakistan’s business community participated wholeheartedly in the meeting; with a clear mandate that in order to elicit interest from the private sector, the service needed to be
regular and punctual.
I believe that from the point of view of Pakistan, there were two very significant outcomes from this meeting. Firstly, the meeting illustrated the resolve at both the government and private levels to develop rail transport within the ECO block as a viable form of transport, which also reflects the present government’s prioritization of
better trade linkages with Central Asia and the Greater Middle East region, so to say. This is a most certainly a positive development, given both the saturation and financial turmoil currently facing Pakistan in its more traditional markets in the West. Secondly, the meeting made Pakistan even more
painfully aware of its poor state of rail infrastructure. Indeed, the participants noted that the current running time of the
Gül Train, which is a cargo train connecting Islamabad with Istanbul via Tehran, was the
longest in Pakistan (10 days). This has extended the train’s total running time to an unattractive 18 days (4 days each in Iran and Turkey). Pakistan was asked to curtail the running time the train spent while traversing its territory.
However, there is an
elephant in the room, which no one appears to notice. With all the talk about enhancing trade with India over the past one-and-a-half years, our policymakers are
surprisingly lethargic when it comes to the issue of improving Pakistan’s rail connectivity with India, located in
our immediate neighborhood. While the spillover effects from this would be enormous (think about the teeming hundreds who use the dilapidated rail wagons to visit their loved ones and holy sites in both the countries every year), let us talk about this proposal from a
pure business point of view.
The existing setup: At present,
two provinces of Pakistan’s territory with rail networks share borders with India: Sindh and Punjab.
The Thar Express plies the tracks linking Sindh with Rajasthan. Besides being a service that is marred by severe delays and inefficiency, the
tragedy is that it is utterly
useless to businessmen.
No cargo trains are allowed on this route, even though a considerable amount was spent by the Government on widening the track gauge prior to the reopening of the route in 2006. Opening up this route would greatly serve the interests of businesses based in Sindh, which trade with Maharashtra and Gujarat, and are presently using the Mumbai-Karachi sea route. The business community has asserted that this route will save considerable money now being paid as ocean freight to shipping lines, which take almost ten days for loading and unloading; while trains would allow cargo to reach dry ports within a period of 24 hours at much lower handling cost.
For instance, according to a 2006 study supported by the World Bank, it costs $550 to ship a 20 ft container from Mumbai to Karachi. On the other hand, a comparable container sent through the Delhi-Wagah route costs an Indian trader just $325. The distance between Delhi and Wagah (approximately
500 kilometres) is roughly
comparable to that between
Khokrapar and Ahmadabad (Gujarat). Therefore, we could assume a similar cost involved in using this route for container trains; a clear cost advantage to the business community of both the countries.
The other route, linking the two Punjabs, is of greater use to the business community of both countries in its present state. This is true despite the fact that there are frequent complaints about severe shortages of rolling stock, warehousing facilities, corruption, and general inefficiency at this border. But it is encouraging to hear that over the past one year, both countries have been involved in efforts to revamp the existing setup for trucks at Wagah-Attari, which should alleviate the situation somewhat, by easing the burden on the rail route. According to a study by Indian think-tank ASSOCHAM, the improved border crossing is expected to help bring trade to $8 billion annually, from the existing level of $2.6 billion.
Potential for improvement: While there is obviously plentiful room for improvement in the two routes mentioned above, let us explore the possibility of further rail linkages between India and Pakistan.
Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan is the
terminus of a broad gauge track of Indian Railways, which joins with the main system at Jodhpur. Jaisalmer is highly connected to the rest of India by air, road and rail. It is situated
217 km from
Pakistan’s major rail station Rohri, which is
less than the distance between Karachi and Rohri (478 kms). Jaisalmer earns a large share of its income from tourism. On the other hand, Rajasthan state itself is rich in minerals, agricultural produce and industry. In particular, the establishment of a further link between Sindh and Rajasthan would serve the interests of the
farming community on both sides, and help in dealing with
shortages of food in times of famine and drought, which this region is susceptible to.Another rail linkage, which could perhaps be explored with Rajasthan is with
Anupgarh, which is located right on the border of Rajasthan, and is bounded on the
west by Bahawalnagar district of the Pakistani Punjab, and on the
north by East Punjab. Anupgarh is the
hub of Rajasthan’s food grain industry, and is one of the
terminals for India’s North Western Railway Service. To provide some perspective, keep in mind that Anupgarh is located
no more than 200 kms from Multan.
If we were to move outside of Rajasthan to East Punjab, we would notice that there are
some railway terminals that could almost readily be of use to us besides the Wagah-Attari terminus. Consider for instance
Firozpur, which is serves as a
Railway Divisional Headquarters for Indian Railways, and has easy access by road and rail to other cities such as Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jullundur, Delhi, and Chandigarh. Incidentally,
until 1970, the
Ganda Singh Wala-Hussainiwala route, which opens into Firozpur district of India, functioned as a
conduit for the trade of fruits and food products between Pakistan and India. There is also a
disused railway track, which presumably used to connect the two countries. In 2005, there were proposals to reopen the border; while there has also been indication of interest from Pakistan’s business community to open this border during the recent thaw in Indo-Pak ties, but it remains closed to date (This crossing is just located at a
drive of 45 minutes from Lahore).
History also tells us that there is another previously used route, which can be
reinvigorated with some effort. The Indian rail terminal of
Fazilka was connected by rail tracks to
Mandi Sadiqganj on the route to Bahawalnagar, and then to Bahawalpur. The distance between
Fazilka and Mandi Sadiqganj is approximately 150 kms.
Before partition of the subcontinent, this rail line was of
great importance for connecting Delhi with Karachi via Bhatinda. It may be kept in mind that Bhatinda is one of the
largest railway junctions in India, with no less than
six rail routes extending from it. Major industries in Bhatinda include fertilizers, energy petrochemicals, textiles, citrus fruits and sugar. All of these should be of interest to Pakistani industrialists.
In particular, according to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation the Bhatinda oil refinery could become an important gateway to Pakistan for the supply of petroleum products from India and
potentially naphtha from Pakistan, if relations between the two neighbors improve further in coming times. In this scenario, then, a working rail link between Bhatinda and Pakistan would be of
great benefit to Pakistan.
Finally, I would like to identify
Malout, which is located at a distance of only
45 kms from Pakistan, and used to lie on the
erstwhile Bhatinda-Karachi line. Malout is famous in India for its agricultural equipment manufacturing industry; an area in which Pakistan is
quite weak. Another major industry in the region is related to high cotton cultivation in the region. Since the past few years, cotton-related business has been booming in the region. It is worth mentioning here that the market for
second-hand cars and two-wheelers in Malout has also grown to become one of the
biggest in the region. All of these represent potential opportunities for Pakistan.
In conclusion, Pakistan stands much to
gain from better rail connectivity with India, if we go by the rail terminals that I have identified above. If we look at the broader picture, India
already maintains vigorous rail links with Bangladesh and Nepal, is working on
building a track to Myanmar, and is studying the
possibility of linkage with China. Conversely, Pakistan seems to
lag far behind in this respect
despite of the available endless opportunities; some of which have been highlighted above. In this regard, the private sector in Pakistan must step forward, given the present difficulties being faced by Pakistan Railways, and
assume a leading role, because they are the ones who stand to gain the
most.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Hard to accept but nice collection of data & historical linkages of economic importance.
Exploring
greater rail connectivity with India
By Saif Asif Khan
Last month, Pakistan participated in a meeting of the railway authorities of the
Economic Cooperation Organization countries in Ankara. The ensuing discussions and resulting press release have made it evident that the original Registered Community Design member countries, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, plan to bolster their rail links in the coming few months, with the Islamabad-Istanbul cargo service to be hopefully recommenced shortly. Pakistans business community participated wholeheartedly in the meeting; with a clear mandate that in order to elicit interest from the private sector, the service needed to be
regular and punctual.
I believe that from the point of view of Pakistan, there were two very significant outcomes from this meeting. Firstly, the meeting illustrated the resolve at both the government and private levels to develop rail transport within the ECO block as a viable form of transport, which also reflects the present governments prioritization of
better trade linkages with Central Asia and the Greater Middle East region, so to say. This is a most certainly a positive development, given both the saturation and financial turmoil currently facing Pakistan in its more traditional markets in the West. Secondly, the meeting made Pakistan even more
painfully aware of its poor state of rail infrastructure. Indeed, the participants noted that the current running time of the
Gül Train, which is a cargo train connecting Islamabad with Istanbul via Tehran, was the
longest in Pakistan (10 days). This has extended the trains total running time to an unattractive 18 days (4 days each in Iran and Turkey). Pakistan was asked to curtail the running time the train spent while traversing its territory.
However, there is an
elephant in the room, which no one appears to notice. With all the talk about enhancing trade with India over the past one-and-a-half years, our policymakers are
surprisingly lethargic when it comes to the issue of improving Pakistans rail connectivity with India, located in
our immediate neighborhood. While the spillover effects from this would be enormous (think about the teeming hundreds who use the dilapidated rail wagons to visit their loved ones and holy sites in both the countries every year), let us talk about this proposal from a
pure business point of view.
The existing setup: At present,
two provinces of Pakistans territory with rail networks share borders with India: Sindh and Punjab.
The Thar Express plies the tracks linking Sindh with Rajasthan. Besides being a service that is marred by severe delays and inefficiency, the
tragedy is that it is utterly
useless to businessmen.
No cargo trains are allowed on this route, even though a considerable amount was spent by the Government on widening the track gauge prior to the reopening of the route in 2006. Opening up this route would greatly serve the interests of businesses based in Sindh, which trade with Maharashtra and Gujarat, and are presently using the Mumbai-Karachi sea route. The business community has asserted that this route will save considerable money now being paid as ocean freight to shipping lines, which take almost ten days for loading and unloading; while trains would allow cargo to reach dry ports within a period of 24 hours at much lower handling cost.
For instance, according to a 2006 study supported by the World Bank, it costs $550 to ship a 20 ft container from Mumbai to Karachi. On the other hand, a comparable container sent through the Delhi-Wagah route costs an Indian trader just $325. The distance between Delhi and Wagah (approximately
500 kilometres) is roughly
comparable to that between
Khokrapar and Ahmadabad (Gujarat). Therefore, we could assume a similar cost involved in using this route for container trains; a clear cost advantage to the business community of both the countries.
The other route, linking the two Punjabs, is of greater use to the business community of both countries in its present state. This is true despite the fact that there are frequent complaints about severe shortages of rolling stock, warehousing facilities, corruption, and general inefficiency at this border. But it is encouraging to hear that over the past one year, both countries have been involved in efforts to revamp the existing setup for trucks at Wagah-Attari, which should alleviate the situation somewhat, by easing the burden on the rail route. According to a study by Indian think-tank ASSOCHAM, the improved border crossing is expected to help bring trade to $8 billion annually, from the existing level of $2.6 billion.
Potential for improvement: While there is obviously plentiful room for improvement in the two routes mentioned above, let us explore the possibility of further rail linkages between India and Pakistan.
Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan is the
terminus of a broad gauge track of Indian Railways, which joins with the main system at Jodhpur. Jaisalmer is highly connected to the rest of India by air, road and rail. It is situated
217 km from
Pakistans major rail station Rohri, which is
less than the distance between Karachi and Rohri (478 kms). Jaisalmer earns a large share of its income from tourism. On the other hand, Rajasthan state itself is rich in minerals, agricultural produce and industry. In particular, the establishment of a further link between Sindh and Rajasthan would serve the interests of the
farming community on both sides, and help in dealing with
shortages of food in times of famine and drought, which this region is susceptible to.Another rail linkage, which could perhaps be explored with Rajasthan is with
Anupgarh, which is located right on the border of Rajasthan, and is bounded on the
west by Bahawalnagar district of the Pakistani Punjab, and on the
north by East Punjab. Anupgarh is the
hub of Rajasthans food grain industry, and is one of the
terminals for Indias North Western Railway Service. To provide some perspective, keep in mind that Anupgarh is located
no more than 200 kms from Multan.
If we were to move outside of Rajasthan to East Punjab, we would notice that there are
some railway terminals that could almost readily be of use to us besides the Wagah-Attari terminus. Consider for instance
Firozpur, which is serves as a
Railway Divisional Headquarters for Indian Railways, and has easy access by road and rail to other cities such as Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jullundur, Delhi, and Chandigarh. Incidentally,
until 1970, the
Ganda Singh Wala-Hussainiwala route, which opens into Firozpur district of India, functioned as a
conduit for the trade of fruits and food products between Pakistan and India. There is also a
disused railway track, which presumably used to connect the two countries. In 2005, there were proposals to reopen the border; while there has also been indication of interest from Pakistans business community to open this border during the recent thaw in Indo-Pak ties, but it remains closed to date (This crossing is just located at a
drive of 45 minutes from Lahore).
History also tells us that there is another previously used route, which can be
reinvigorated with some effort. The Indian rail terminal of
Fazilka was connected by rail tracks to
Mandi Sadiqganj on the route to Bahawalnagar, and then to Bahawalpur. The distance between
Fazilka and Mandi Sadiqganj is approximately 150 kms.
Before partition of the subcontinent, this rail line was of
great importance for connecting Delhi with Karachi via Bhatinda. It may be kept in mind that Bhatinda is one of the
largest railway junctions in India, with no less than
six rail routes extending from it. Major industries in Bhatinda include fertilizers, energy petrochemicals, textiles, citrus fruits and sugar. All of these should be of interest to Pakistani industrialists.
In particular, according to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation the Bhatinda oil refinery could become an important gateway to Pakistan for the supply of petroleum products from India and
potentially naphtha from Pakistan, if relations between the two neighbors improve further in coming times. In this scenario, then, a working rail link between Bhatinda and Pakistan would be of
great benefit to Pakistan.
Finally, I would like to identify
Malout, which is located at a distance of only
45 kms from Pakistan, and used to lie on the
erstwhile Bhatinda-Karachi line. Malout is famous in India for its agricultural equipment manufacturing industry; an area in which Pakistan is
quite weak. Another major industry in the region is related to high cotton cultivation in the region. Since the past few years, cotton-related business has been booming in the region. It is worth mentioning here that the market for
second-hand cars and two-wheelers in Malout has also grown to become one of the
biggest in the region. All of these represent potential opportunities for Pakistan.
In conclusion, Pakistan stands much to
gain from better rail connectivity with India, if we go by the rail terminals that I have identified above. If we look at the broader picture, India
already maintains vigorous rail links with Bangladesh and Nepal, is working on
building a track to Myanmar, and is studying the
possibility of linkage with China. Conversely, Pakistan seems to
lag far behind in this respect
despite of the available endless opportunities; some of which have been highlighted above. In this regard, the private sector in Pakistan must step forward, given the present difficulties being faced by Pakistan Railways, and
assume a leading role, because they are the ones who stand to gain the
most.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Hard to accept but nice collection of data & historical linkages of economic importance.
Other discussed links are
Ferozepur–Samasata,
Ferozepur–Lahore,
Amritsar–Lahore,
Amritsar–Sialkot and
Jammu–Sialkot.
