ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has needed 600 good condition locomotives to meet anticipated freight and passenger traffic.
“Now Pakistan Railways has a fleet of 440 locomotives out of which only 275 are functional,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP. He said that Pakistan Railways currently has only 275 locomotives in a running condition, while it needs another 375 engines during the next five years.
As many as 260 railway locomotives have completed their economic life, while 30 of them have outlived their age and will be abandoned in 2018, he added.
The official said that Pakistan Railways is in the process of inviting tenders for 20 new locomotives. He said the department had signed an agreement with a US-based company to procure the locomotives, which will be delivered by next year.
Besides that, he said that a project for rehabilitation of 27 locomotives was under execution at Risalpur factory, while another 12 have been rehabilitated and inducted into the railway fleet. To a question, the official said the present government was taking concrete measures to make the Pakistan Railway as profitable entity.
