ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank has expressed its willingness to identify and arrange commercial co-financing for projects of Pakistan Railways, particularly modernising its infrastructure and rolling stock.

ADB Director-General for Central and West Asia Werner Liepach, on his visit to Pakistan, held detailed discussions with Secretary Railways Parveen Agha on Monday on the modernisation of railways. Upgradation of Pakistan Locomotives Factory in Risalpur, procurement of new locomotives and creation of a freight company were discussed at lengths.

Mr Werner, who previously served as ADB country director in Pakistan, stated that the group’s co-financing for railways project will be the seed money to bring in more commercial funding.

ADB believes the railway sector needs to exalt its infrastructure to provide more inexpensive transport services and recover the market share lost to roads.

The Pakistan Locom­otives Factory at Risalpur, which started operations in 1992, has the designed production capacity of 25 diesel electric locomotives per year. Despite having the potential to double the production, the factory has not been able to perform accordingly.

Railways has realised that the locomotives factory will remain an underperforming public sector entity without foreign investment and technical assistance, and plans have been prepared to seek international help.

The factory has manufactured a total of 102 diesel electric locomotives since 1993.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018