Railways to execute 37 projects worth Rs 22.8b

Ministry of Railways will spend around Rs 22.8 billion to execute 37 projects for rehabilitation of its infrastructure and reinvigorating services in the current fiscal year, making the organization a profit-earning entity. “During the current fiscal year, the priority will be given to the procurement of new locomotives as the railways is currently facing shortage of around 500 locomotives,” an official said on Monday. He said an amount of Rs 6.1 billion had been sanctioned as a commercial loan for repair of 96 locomotives, adding that planning commission had approved three major schemes at a cost of Rs. 35 billion to support railways revival. The official said that Letter of Interest (LoI) had been issued for rehabilitation of 27 locomotives and tenders for procurement of another 150 new locomotives were under evaluation. He said around 150 locomotives were to be rehabilitated while procurement of 75 locomotives was in pipeline, adding that around 150 coaches would be manufactured during the ongoing year. “Two new projects for doubling of track between Lahore-Faisalabad and Lahore-Lalamusa will be launched in 2012-13.” He said a `Project Management Unit’ was also being established in the ministry that would help execute different projects in a smooth manner, avoiding any procedural delays. “Two dry ports will be set up at Prem Nagar and at Shershah Railway Station for which Rs 494 million and Rs 485 million had been allocated respectively,” he added. He said the available locomotives had an average age of 33 years, while in rest of the world this was about 20 years. More than 55 per cent track is overage, 70 per cent of freight wagons are of low-capacity and 86 per cent of bridges are more than 100 years old, he said.