The National Assembly was informed on Monday that Pakistan Railways was earning Rs 4.416 billion annually after outsourcing the commercial management of four passenger trains as compared to the earning of Rs 1.761 billion before outsourcing.

Responding to a question during the question hour in National Assembly, Parliamentary Secretary on Railways Dewaan Aashiq Hussain said that Pakistan Railways had not privatised any passenger train since January, 2012.

Pakistan Railways has outsourced the commercial management of four trains including Night Coach, Hazara Express, Fareed Express and Shalimar Express under public private partnership to private sector parties under PPRA-Rules, 2004 through a bidding process.

The parliamentary secretary informed that Pakistan Railways recently imported 55 D.E locomotives of 4000 HP from General Electric (G.E), USA.

He said 32 locomotives had been received in Pakistan while remaining 23 were in transit and expected to reach Karachi by end of July, 2017.

Furthermore, he said a tender for procurement of 20 D.E locomotives had been finalised and Letter of Intent (LOI) had been issued in favour of M/s General Electric, USA.

Aashiq said five D.E locomotives of 3000 HP were manufactured and assembled by Risalpur Locomotive Factory during the said period and were utilised for Railway operations during the said period.