Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said all out efforts were being made to improve performance and efficiency of Pakistan Railways to make it a profit earning organisation.
In a media interview, he said locomotives not in running condition were being locally repaired and overhauled at Central Diesel Locomotive (CDL) workshop at a cost of millions of rupees by utilising Pakistan Railways’ own resources and manpower. There are over 12,000 parts in a locomotive; he said, adding that local and imported spare parts were used to overhaul rail engines.
At present‚ he said‚ Pakistan Railways had a total of 148 locomotives which were in running condition, but added that the Indian Railways on the other hand had 8300 locomotives. A comparison between the two is not possible, he said. Responding to a question, the minister said most of the fleet including passenger coaches‚ freight wagons and locomotives were outdated and Pakistan Railways needed a massive funding for restructuring. He said had the government provided the bailout package amounting to Rs 11.5 billion to Pakistan Railways during 2010, the situation of the institution would have remained under control. Bilour said further that there were a total of 85‚000 employees of Pakistan Railways with over 140‚000 pensioners.