LAHORE, May 21: Of the 104 locomotives the Lahore division of the Pakistan Railways has, some 42 are in operational condition.

“Four locomotives have been rehabilitated recently through indigenous resources while seven other can be made operational if spares are provided,” Chief Mechanical Engineer (Loco) Mubeenuddin informed Railways General Manager (Operations) Junaid Qureshi during his (GM’s) visit to the Loco Shed on Monday.

Accompanied by Lahore Divisional Superintendent Javed Anwar, the GM visited various shops of the Loco Shed and awarded Rs2,000 each to two employees.

“In order to steer the railways out of the ongoing crises, all officers, officials and workers will have to join hands and work like a team. We have to learn to live within our resources,” Mr Qureshi told the employees there.

Later, the GM also met the striking leaders and activists of Loco Shed Mazdoor Union and asked them to end their strike as all their just demands had been forwarded to the finance ministry for approval.

However, union president Sarfraz Khan and secretary Inayat Gujjar refused to end their strike till the acceptance of their demands. They informed the general manager that the token strike would go on till May 28 and after that they would enforce a wheel-jam.

Earlier, technical staff stopped rolling out of locomotives from the loco shed at 7am for four hours.