LAHORE:
Restructuring of Pakistan Railways cannot be achieved in a matter of a few years, claimed Minister of Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique, adding that an amount of $12 billion would be required to revamp its infrastructure.
The press conference was held to mark an agreement for the provision of 55 diesel-electric locomotives of 4,000-4,500 horse power from General Electric. The company will start delivering locomotives as ‘complete build units’ within 16 months.
Railways expects to recover the cost of around Rs340 million per locomotive within three years.
“Railways needs financial assistance of around $12 billion to completely revamp its dilapidated infrastructure to modern lines,” said Rafique.
He said Chinese assistance of $3.69 billion under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will only help in upgrading a certain segment – the Main Line-1 (Karachi-Peshawar). “However, we are trying to get financial assistance from other countries to upgrade our Main Line-2 (Lahore-Faisalabad-Bahawalpur) and Main Line-3 (Rohri-Quetta) on build-operate-transfer mode,” he added.
