PR revamping project: last batch of 15 Chinese locomotives arrives

[Saifullah Sani]

Pakistan Friday received the last batch of 15 diesel electric locomotives from China that completed the project worth Rs 19.4 billion essential for revamping Pakistan Railways to generate the much-needed revenue for making it financially viable by improving the dilapidated passenger and freight services, it is learnt.

Official sources told Business Recorder that 15 locomotives of 3,000 HP have reached Karachi port. The country has already received 43 locomotives under the deal of which the last batch of 15 locomotives will be formally added to the Railways fleet by the end of current month.

Sources said after this addition, the total number of locomotives would be 268. Of the total 58 locomotives, procured from China, 29 are of 2,000 HP and 29 are of 3,000 HP. The agreement for 58 locomotives was reached by the previous government. However, sources revealed that the project has been reportedly revised and the number of locomotives increased from 58 to 63 whereas 5 will be built at Carriage Factory Risalpur in collaboration with China.

According to the documents, the total cost of the project was Rs 19.4 billion while the allocation for the current fiscal year was Rs 6.5 billion whereas the government has released Rs 4.62 billion of which 90 percent of the funds have been utilised by the Railways Ministry. Sources further said that 75 percent of the project has been completed and the remaining would be completed by the end of June 2015.

The project to manufacture new locomotives worth Rs 2.23 billion would be completed by March this year, for which spare parts from US and China would be utilised. The government has added 43 new locomotives procured from a consortium led by China to the freight trains fleet and likely to make use of the remaining for the same purpose. The government had placed the order with consortium of US, Germany and China with latter having leading role in provision of 58 locomotives. After vigorous trial (to run in winter and summer), the government assessed their performance and gave go-ahead signal to import the remaining locomotives. The American company Caterpillar provided the prime mover (main motor) of the locomotives, while Germany provided some other spare parts and the remaining assembly equipment and parts were provided by a Chinese company. Chinese locomotives imported in the past did not have good track record, therefore it was decided to import the locomotives through a consortium, officials added.

PR revamping project: last batch of 15 Chinese locomotives arrives | Business Recorder