28% of Pakistan Railways Locomotive Fleet Non-Functional

Around 129 (28 percent) diesel-electric locomotives in Pakistan are non-functional, according to official documents.

There are 461 diesel-electric locomotives owned by Pakistan Railways out of which 332 (72 percent) are functional and 129 (28 percent) are non-functional.

41 locomotives are under normal overhauling schedules. These locomotives will be rolled out after routine schedule maintenance turn by turn. 11 locomotives met with an accident on various dates and locations, and fabrication work and procurement of spares are under process for these locomotives. 69 DPU Class of D.E. Locomotives are held up for repairs and need major modifications while 8 locomotives are temporarily deleted and under condemnation process due to overage.

Railways to procure 25 new locomotives

Pakistan Railways was planning to procure as many as 25 diesel-electric locomotives for various shunting points across the country which would help to replace outdated locomotives that are soon to be scrapped.

The project for the procurement and manufacturing of 25 shunting locomotives would be implemented in three years at an estimated cost of Rs. 14 billion, sources in the Ministry of Railways said.

Additionally, most of the old locomotives would be discarded due to high maintenance costs. They said the project aimed at procuring and manufacturing 25 shunting diesel-electric locomotives of 2000-2200 horsepower to replace the overage and uneconomical locomotives.

The sources said the old locomotives consumed excessive fuel and in most cases, high-horsepower locomotives were under-utilized during shunting operations.

Sources said that the addition of the new locomotives would enhance the capacity of Pakistan Railways by removing the bottlenecks during the shunting of heavy-load freight trains and the placement of freight loads at departure yards in Karachi, Lahore, and other places.

The sources said the role of specially designed shunting locomotives was considered the backbone of train formation and train rake replacement at the platform as well as the removal of train rakes from the platform to the washing line and sick lines.