ISLAMABAD, May 13: The ministry of railways has finalized a plan to add by procurement or manufacturing 150 ‘high speed modern passenger coaches’ to its fleet which it believes is fast becoming obsolete and is no longer fit for a speed beyond 105km per hour (KMPH) on the mainline, it is learnt.

Informed sources told Dawn that the ministry had taken a plea that most of the passenger carriages were overage that needed to be replaced immediately, but due to financial constraints it was not possible to replace the entire fleet. It has sought Rs6 billion from the centre to manage 150 modern coaches.

The ministries of finance and the planning and development division were informed that 40 coaches would be imported which would help improve railways income and the operation system, while material will be procured for 110 coaches to be manufactured locally through transfer of technology.

The Railway Carriage Factory, Islamabad, would be provided with an opportunity to compete in international tenders for supply of carriages.

A major bottleneck in increasing the speed is the design of existing bogies which caters for a speed up to 120KMPH.

The objective of the plan is to replace one train on main corridor and introduce seven new ones in accordance with following details: Peshawar-Karachi Cantonment, one train to be replaced; Rawalpindi-Karachi, one additional train to be introduced; Lahore–Faisalabad, three additional trains to be introduced; and Lahore-Rawalpindi, three additional trains to be introduced.

“The continuous use of such a large number of overage and dilapidated passenger coaches has created maintenance and operational problems, besides resulting in reduction of railway’s passenger-carrying capacity, deterioration in quality of service leading to public complaints and criticism by the press,” the railway ministry told the ministries of finance and P&D division.

“An appraisal of the existing situation would lead to the conclusion that if railways are to serve as modern means of transport in passenger business, the replacement of their overage stock by more comfortable and modern stock cannot be deferred any further without serious setback to the standards of efficiency, safety and goodwill,” according to a procurement and manufacturing plan submitted to the federal government.