300 locomotives to be manufactured under long term plan: Senate told

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique on Thursday informed the Senate that a 10-year long term plan has been prepared to manufacture 300 locomotives at Pakistan Locomotive Factory Risalpur.

Replying to various supplementary questions during Question Hour, the minister said the contract has not yet been signed. However, he said Chinese and American companies have shown their interests.

The project would be build-operate and transfer (BOT) basis, he said. The minister said Pakistan Railways has assembled five locomotives of 3000 HP with a cost of Rs 1760.229 million at Pakistan Locomotive Factory, Risalpur during the last five years.

The factory has also carried out nominated repair / special repair of 85 locomotives during the said period. Besides new manufacturing and major repair of Diesel Electric Locomotives, the factory was continuously engaged in manufacturing of various kinds of diesel spares, such as Gear Cases, Shafts, Coupling, Fuel Tank, Water Tank, Cow Catchers, Equalizer

Beams, Brake Levers, Push Rods, Footsteps, Flanges, Superstructure’s doors, Hatch Covers, Air Compressor Shafts, Sand boxes, repair of Elastic Coupling, Bogies, rewinding of different types of Motors etc, he said.

The minister said Pakistan Railways has also recently completed rehabilitation of 27 HGMU locomotives of 3000 HPat Mughalpura Workshop, Lahore under PSDP with an expenditure of Rs. 6540.211 million, which enhanced their life for further 15 years.

To a supplementary question, he said a new cargo train from Faisalabad to Karachi has also been launched. He said 75 locomotives of 4000 HP were imported from USA which were being used for freight trains. Orders for procurement of 200 more locomotives have also been placed, he added.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Maritime Affairs Jaffar Iqbal told the House that at present there was no such provision in the enactments for disbursement of salaries and allowance to the elected vice presidents and members of the Cantonments Boards in the country.

However, the vice presidents were entitled to a furnished office along with staff and landline telephone facility, he said.