Pakistan Railways is planning to buy diesel locomotives from South Korea for what a five-member delegation of the ministry is already in Seoul to negotiate the deal.
The delegation is headed by General Manager Operation, Muhammad Junaid Qureshi and comprises Chief Mechanical Engineer (Locomotives) Mubeen ud Din, Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer (Diesel) Rahat Mirza, Manager Works Zulifqar Sheikh and Deputy Chief Planning of Pakistan Railways Karachi Muhammad Yusuf, an official said.
He said that during their stay in South Korea, the railway official would visit locomotive manufacturing plants, inspect the proposed engines and hold necessary meetings to finalize the purchase.
The official said that South Korea had upgraded their railways network from diesel to electrifying system to control the environment threats. He said that the Koreans have a sufficient stock of locomotives and have shown their interests to sale the diesel locomotives to Pakistan since these diesel locomotives are useless for them after running of locomotives on electricity.
The official said that on experimental basis South Korea may hand over five locomotives to Pakistan Railways free of cost that would follow the finalization of the deal.
He said these locomotives were manufactured by General Electric Company and available on cheap rates comparatively to the new ones available with United State of America and China made locomotives.
The official was of the view that after the successful deal, Pakistan Railways would be in a position to make operational all Korean locomotives after making necessary modification at Pakistan Railways Factory at Risalpur. The railways, is facing serious problems due to shortage of locomotives and there are only 70 to 80 fully functional locomotives against the demand of around 400, he added.
Railways plans to buy locomotives from Korea
