ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Railways has submitted a plan to the Planning Commission for transportation of coal by rail to power plant being set up at Jamshoro.

The project will be completed in two years at a cost of Rs15.5 billion.

The 2x600MW coal-fired power project is being set up at Jamshoro to meet the ever increasing demand of electricity.

The PR has proposed that the project either be financed through the Public Sector Development Programme or from the budget of the Jamshoro power plant.

The project is required to be implemented for efficient transportation of coal to the power plants by improving the infrastructure, procuring requisite locomotives and rolling stock.

It entails laying of a new track as an additional line as well as widening of existing level-crossings and provision of new bridges. The track will be rehabilitated by replacing unserviceable sleepers with new mono block sleepers providing full ballast cushion.

The line capacity of existing track is insufficient to meet the requirement of future freight traffic. Land will be acquired for a new track from Kotri to Jamshoro power plant and from Bin Qasim to Port Qasim.

The new track has been proposed to be laid parallel to the existing track in order to have double line to facilitate directional traffic.

The remodelling and rehabilitation of station yards at Port Qasim, Bin Qasim, Kotri, Sindh University and Akhundabad will be required along with revamping of signalling system to ensure efficient train operation.

The PR has said that 10 diesel engine locomotives and 500 new design high speed hopper bogie wagons would be required to meet the demand for the transportation of 6.60 million tons per annum coal from Karachi to Jamshoro via Kotri.

It is estimated that eight trains would be required for the job. At present, the PR does not have any high capacity hopper wagons.

New-design bogie wagons, fitted with roller bearings and air brakes will work at higher speeds to achieve lesser turn round and down time for maintenance, leading to better operational efficiency and effective utilisation of operational assets.

The present fleet of the PR comprises mostly overage wagons of and obsolete designs which are not capable to operate at a high speed.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd , 2014