At the Mughalpura railway plant in Lahore, Pakistan Railways (PR) and Chinese mechanical experts are building 34 locomotive engines for Rs1.5 billion.
According to reports, approximately three locomotives are being produced each month till all of them are scheduled to be deployed by next year rather than importing the engines, which would have cost Rs15 billion.
The Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Quetta sections will use the engines.
All of these locomotive engines, according to the sources, were brought in from China in 2014, and a contract for their maintenance with a Chinese company was finalized in 2017.
However, the project was delayed for a number of reasons. The rehabilitation of these engines has, however, begun in earnest now that the situation has improved.
They claimed that a total of 34 locomotives will be fully integrated into train operations by August 2023.
The sources stated that “PR mechanical engineers and Chinese engineers are working together with the workshop personnel in shifts” and that the workers are outfitted with cutting-edge, reasonably priced, and environmentally friendly technology.
Salman Sadiq Sheikh, general manager of maintenance and service, stated that the railway engineers in the workshop are constructing affordable locomotive engines while staying within the bounds of available resources.
He emphasized that these engines were unique in that current technology was used to prepare them, meaning that they would produce less pollution.
The locomotive workshop staff would eventually become knowledgeable in maintaining these engines, which will benefit Pakistan Railways, he continued.
