RAWALPINDI, Oct 26: Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour on Tuesday visited Central Diesel Locomotive Workshop of Pakistan Railways where unserviceable locomotives have been dumped.
The Workshop located in Rawalpindi has the capacity to repair 8 to 10 locomotives a month with workers numbering around 800. Due to acute financial crisis, Pakistan Railways has not been able to purchase spare parts of unserviceable locomotives.
“We are trying to determine that whether the workshop has the capacity to cater to an increased workload and turn out temporarily stable locomotives in six months,” Mr Bilour told newsmen following the visit.
In the history of railways, Tuesday saw the coincidence. In Pakistan, the railways minister visited the graveyard of locomotives, while in China, two bullet trains glided silently out of a new station to inaugurate the latest high speed rail line. The China-made train has been clocked at almost 420km per hour, a world speed record, though it will usually operate at a maximum speed of 350km/h.
The decades old largest loco workshop is built to take 70 per cent load of repairing locomotives, but currently it is functioning under-capacity. The loco workshop in Karachi has the ability to take repair work up to only 30 per cent while, in Lahore such a workshop is able to repair small and light engines.
Pakistan Railways has the rolling stock of only 520 locomotives; out of which only 220 were able to pull the passenger and freight trains and remaining out of track.
Mr Bilour urged the government to provide funds for the renovation and repair of the unserviceable locomotives. “Pakistan Railways would be turned into a profitable organization if it is equipped with 400 new locomotives,” Mr Bilour said.
Officials informed the minister that two locomotives had been put on track after overhauling at the CDL workshop. They were destroyed during riots following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto while seven more locomotives would be repaired and renovated in the near future.
Addressing the workers, he assured them that their problems would be resolved on priority as the government was making all out efforts for the betterment of labour class, adding “We have highly skilled labour which can be competed with any country of the world.”
The Divisional Superintendent of Pakistan Railways Rawalpindi, Tariq Khan presented a detailed briefing to the railways minister about the operation in the division.