July 31, 2006	Monday	Rajab 4, 1427

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LAHORE, July 30: The Pakistan Railways will get another 10 3,000 horsepower (HP) engine locomotives from China by the end of December.

The remaining 10 locomotives of the same capacity would be delivered to the Pakistan Railways by the end of March next year, officials said.

At present, of the 35 Chinese locomotives being used by the PR on its network, some 24 have 3,000 HP engines while 11 have 2,000 HP engines. The 3,000 HP locomotives were being used mainly for hauling passenger and the 2,000 HP for freight trains, they told Dawn on Sunday.

Beijing has so far supplied 49 locomotives to Islamabad under an agreement signed in the presence of Chinese premier Zhu Rongri and Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf on May 11, 2001.

Giving breakdown, the officials said Chinese delivered 15 completely built-up locomotives that were put in operation soon after arrival. Seven locomotives have 2,000 HP and eight have 3,000 HP engines.

The consignment also included eight semi-knocked down (SKD), 10 completely knocked down (CKD) locomotives with 2,000 HP and 16 SKD locomotives with 3,000 HP engines.

“We have manufactured all the 16 SKD locomotives with 3,000 HP engines and four of the eight SKD units with 2,000 HP engines at the PR Locomotive Factory at Risalpur,” the railway officials said and added that the manufacturing of the remaining 14 CKD locomotives would be completed within next seven months.

Headed by railway chairman Shakil Durrani and comprising PR Locomotive Works (Risalpur) managing director Asad Saeed and Chief Mechanical Engineer (Loco) Behzad Mahmood, a railway ministry delegation visited China to discuss various issues relating to supply of 69 locomotives by a Chinese company to the PR.

The delegation held meetings with the Dongfang Electrical Corporation of China and the latter agreed to supply the remaining 20 locomotives with 3,000 HP engines by the end of March next year.

Mr Wu Weidong, the project manager of Dongfang Electric Corporation responsible for the supply of Chinese locomotives, told this reporter that the availability of certain non-Chinese components to be fitted into these locomotives was one of the major factors that was affecting their delivery schedule.

“But we decided to bring all the non-Chinese components for the 20 CKD locomotives directly to Pakistan instead of via China to expedite the delivery schedule,” said Mr Wu, who is currently in Pakistan.

All the locomotives supplied by his company to the PR were working satisfactorily. “As a confidence-building measure and as a gesture of goodwill to the Pakistan Railways, we have already extended a five-year warranty for the under frames of all SKD and CKD locomotives built or to be built at the Risalpur factory. “The warranty would be backed by a bank guarantee,” said Mr Wu while expressing the desire to continue enhancing their cooperation with the PR in the future.

The federal cabinet had in 2000 approved the plan to procure 69 locomotives from China since the PR had almost grounded to a halt because of its old and out-of-order fleet of locomotives.

All the leading suppliers were approached to supply railway equipment on credit but only China agreed and offered $400 million. Out of it, a sum of $100 million was utilised for the purchase of 69 locomotives. Two Chinese firms competed for the order and Dongfang was awarded the contract due to its lowest bid.