Railways Parliamentary Secretary Noman Islam Sheikh said on Friday that the purchase of new locomotives was necessary for the revival of Railways and to make it a profit earning organization.
In response to a question in the National Assembly, he said that the Ministry of Railways had already floated a tender for the purchase of 69 new locomotives in order to control the deficit.
He said that all non-productive expenses had been stopped and expenditures were being incurred in accordance with available resources. The Parliamentary Secretary said that the Railways had only received six billion rupees out of the total bail out project of Rs 11 billion for the year 2010-2011.
He said that a programme for the repair of 96 locomotives had been prepared for which loans would be taken from the National Bank of Pakistan. He said that a separate project ‘Special Repair of 150 Running locomotives’ had been approved during 2012-13 under PSDP, adding that it would decrease the burden of locomotive maintenance on the revenue budget.
Replying to a question, he said that there was no proposal under consideration for the privatization of the Railways.
