Engineering Post Report
Considerable effort continues to be made at the appropriate level of the federal government seriously addressing the imbalance of freight share between road and rail sectors in the country. Over the years, the road sector has been given preference both officially and otherwise which had considerably adversely affected the earnings of the Pakistan Railways.
In this regard, a significant shift of freightage towards railways in gradually and steadily being made to achieve optimal utilization of its inherent capacity to ensure reducing relative transportation costs..
Pakistan Railways have 470 locomotives including 418 Diesel Electric and 12 Steam Engines and its total network remains stationary at 7791 kilometers of both main and branch lines across the country.
New initiatives which Pakistan Railways are in the process of undertaking include procurement of new rolling stock, improvement of signaling system, feasibility study for provision of new rail links from Gwadar to the rest of the Railway network to facilitate functioning of the Gwadar Deep Sea Water Port, feasibility for connection of Thar Coal to Main Line and a commercial feasibility for new double track from Hyderabad to Karachi as well as initiation of work for upgradation of main line (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar and development of dry port at Havelian under the great game changer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Under the PSDP, Pakistan Railways is continuing working on planning and implementation of 27 ongoing and new development schemes during the current financial year.
Accordingly, work is continuing is continuing in varying ratio on the projects for doubling/improvement of existing track from Port Qasim to Bin Qasim Station (CPEC), rehabilitation of 300 Traction Motors, mechanization of track maintenance as a pilot project, special repair of 100 DE locomotives, Procurement/ Manufacture of 75 numbers new D.E. Locomotives (revised), Reconstruction of Assets Damaged during the floods 2010, rehabilitation and extension Coalition Support Fund at Khanewal and Sukkur, Rehabilitation of Rolling Stock and Track, Replacement of Old and Obsolete Signal Gear from Lodharan-Khanewal –Shahdara Bagh Mainline Section of Pakistan Railways (revised) and renovation and upgradation of major railway stations.
Pakistan Railways are executing development projects estimated to cost Rs 486666.885 million involving no foreign aid against which an estimated total expenditure amounting to Rs 104750.912 were reported to have been incurred at the end of June 2019.
