Three latest locomotives will soon be added to Pakistan Railways' existing goods transportation fleet running between Karachi and the upcountry, it was learnt on Wednesday. According to sources, Pakistan Railways, under an agreement, has agreed to acquire three locomotives from National Logistic Cell (NLC) on a rent of Rs 176, 000 for 24 hours.
The PR officials said that with the induction of three latest locomotives, not only the Railways performance concerning transportation of goods on a regular basis would improve, but its revenue would also increase considerably. "Each engine would generate around Rs 3.5 million per trip to upcountry and this additional income would help Railways to minimise its annual financial deficit," they added.
Giving details of the locomotives, the officials said that the NLC had imported these locomotives from Korea in 2013. NLC had purchased 10 locomotives from Korea at a cost of about $13 million following an agreement was signed with Railways in 2013 for launching freight service from Karachi to other cities under public-private partnership. Meanwhile, independent sources confided to Business Recorder that senior engineers and technical staff, who carried out inspection of these locomotives, had declared them unfit for the railway track.
"However, Railways technical staff and engineers are making their efforts to make these engines fit for goods transport service," the sources added. Opposing the Railways-NLC agreement vis-à-vis the locomotives, Mazdoor Union President Malik Muqaddar Zaman said that Railways should have purchased these locomotives on instalments, instead of acquiring them from NLC on rental basis. "In fact, Railways goods service which was once its major source of income was deliberately suspended by previous governments," he said, deploring that the move had caused huge losses to the national exchequer.