LAHORE, Oct 25: A three-member Pakistan Railways delegation leaves for China on Sunday to sign an agreement with a private Chinese firm for the supply of locomotives and other rolling stock.

China is extending a $300 million financial assistance for the purchase of 69 new locomotives, 175 high-speed passenger coaches and 1,300 goods wagons. The imported rolling stock includes 62 airconditioned passenger coaches.

An agreement with China for the financial assistance for augmenting the PR’s fleet of locomotives, passenger coaches and goods wagons was reached earlier this year.

According to official sources, the Chinese firm will start supplying the rolling stock to Pakistan within one year of the signing of the agreement.

This is the first time that the Chinese have shown interest in cooperating with Pakistan in the rail sector. It has been the result of an international tender which the PR floated towards the end of 2000 for the purchase of rolling stock.

No firm anywhere in the world except the Chinese responded to the tender. It not only offered urgently required rolling stock but also committed the transfer of technology in the development of Chinese expertise in the field.

Once the PR agreed to the proposal, the government of China promptly offered financial assistance for the purchases.

As transfer of technology forms an important component of the protocol, China has committed that it will impart necessary training to railway engineers and technicians first in China and then in Pakistan.

Sources say that China will supply 15 fully manufactured locomotives and the remaining 54 will be fabricated at the Pakistan Railways’ locomotive factory at Risalpur under the supervision of Chinese experts.

Similarly, 40 passenger coaches will be reaching Pakistan for immediate induction into operation. The remaining 135 coaches will be manufactured at Lahore’s carriage workshops.

Comprising chairman Lt-Gen (rtd) Saeeduz Zafar, general manager Iqbal Samad Khan and member finance, the PR delegation is likely to stay in China for about a week during which the schedule of training of railway engineers and technicians will also be worked out.

Sources say the new rolling stock will help the administration implement its plan of introducing three new express trains between Rawalpindi and Karachi. Most of the PR rolling stock has come from the US, Germany and Japan.