PAKISTAN (ISLAMABAD): Out of a total allocation of Rs 61.14 billion for development of transport and communications sector, an amount of Rs 13.4 billion has been earmarked for the Pakistan Railways during the fiscal year 2010-11 for ongoing projects. No new projects are included or proposed in the annual development plan of the Pakistan Railways.Federal Minister for Finance Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in his budgetary speech Saturday said that a major step under the NTC initiatives was the restructuring of railways on commercial lines. The railways would be eventually converted into a corporation. The PR corporatisation would aim to run it as state-owned corporation on commercial basis and fully meet its statutory commitments.The corporation would also allow the PR to implement organisational and financial restructuring. It would be run by professionals, have a restructured board and public partnership would bring both efficiency and investment. The Freight Business Units (FBU) already established would be made more autonomous, eventually leading to formation of a freight company.The Pakistan Railways would adopt a track access policy. Under the policy, it would manage the track and allow commercial operators/freight companies in private sector. Freight trains would run on the PR’s network with their own rolling stock under a contract with the PR to purchase track access. Similarly, other areas involving the private sector would include dry ports, locomotives, maintenance and passenger ticketing and provision of services through management contracts, e.g. door-to-door service through cargo express train operations by private freight forwarders on main trunk routes.