•    The agreement was signed between Railways General Manager (Operations) Saeed Akhtar and NLC Director General Maj-Gen Junaid Rehmat at the finance ministry on Feb 8.

•    The NLC will finance the repair of 30 locomotives at railway workshops.

•    The repair will cost roughly Rs500 million which will be paid by the NLC initially and will be reimbursed by the railways within two years in the form of rebate to the NLC against normal freight charges

•    According to the railways GM, the repair will be completed in eight to 10 months.

•    Of the repaired locomotives, 15 will be used to carry freight booked by the NLC, while the rest will be utilised by the railways for passenger and freight train services.

•    The three-year agreement can be extended.

•    The finance ministry has also allowed the NLC to purchase coaches and locomotives from the railways and to import coaches from South Korea and the US.