The Pakistan Railways (PR), in near future, is all set to inspect prototype models of the state-of-the-art passenger coaches and high-capacity freight wagons it wants to procure from a leading Chinese company.
Several junior and senior officials will also travel to China soon where some of them will inspect the models (as per specifications, designs etc) and some will take part in training being organised by the Chinese firm as a part of two different contracts to transfer technology of manufacturing modern coaches in Pakistan, Dawn has learnt.
“Under $140 million contract (Rs31 billion approximately) awarded by Pakistan Railways, a Chinese company is liable to manufacture 230 state-of-the-art passenger coaches, out of which 46 will be provided to us in the form of completely built unit (CBU) and the remaining 184 will be manufactured here in Pakistan by our engineers and technical staff under supervision of the Chinese,” PR’s Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) Abdul Haseeb explained while talking to Dawn on Saturday.
“The contract of procuring 800 wagons and 20 brake wagons is separate to this contract,” he added.
