Revitilization of Pakistan Railways Freight Transportation under CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) Scenario

Abstract

Transportation is the foundation of an effective and productive logistics framework. One of the key indicator for accessing a matured transportation system is the ability to transport freight efficiently and effectively. In Pakistan, the freight demand is expected to increase due to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Therefore, transportation industry has to pre-plan the management of freight movement across the country. Relying on one mode of transportation (i.e. roads) for freight movement has reduced the service life and increased the maintenance and rehabilitation expenditure of the highways, as well as reduced the revenue of railways. Thus, there is a need of multi-modal transportation system for freight so that freight load can appropriately be shared among highways and railways. This study employed two strategies to forecast the freight demand due to CPEC in year 2025 and 2030. First strategy is based on percentage of container traffic of Tianjin port of China and container throughput capacity of ports of Pakistan. Second strategy is based on linear regression based analysis to forecast the freight demand in analysis years in CPEC scenario. To explore the distribution of freight load between railway and highways, railway capacity, port capacity of Pakistan and business plans of Pakistan Railways have been analyzed in pre-CPEC and post-CPEC scenario. Different options have been proposed in order to distribute the generated freight due to CPEC on railways based on its capacity and rolling stock capacity.