ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique Friday said that all faulty Chinese locomotives, which received cracks, would be replaced within one month.
The minister said this during the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways meeting which held here under the chairmanship of Syed Naveed Qamar.
"Cracks occurred in the underframes of 16 Chinese locomotives but Pakistan Railways will ask the company to replace all 29 as all the locomotives are under warranty," he added.
He said that Chinese firm had accepted the responsibility adding that they would replace underframes of the all the locomotives and the new warranty would also start from the date of replacement.
"Railways is establishing a designing wing within its mechanical department, moreover it is also establishing a research and development department to overcome such issues in future," he added.
Saad Rafique said that important departments were missing from Pakistan Railways and were now being established on urgent basis.
"In future, we will hire a third-party consultant and will not procure locomotives without consultant's recommendation," the minister said.
He said that Pakistan Railways had wrote a letter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe cracks in the foundation of 16 out of 29 locomotives of 2,000 horsepower.
To a question, the minister said "we have reservations over the investigation of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) because many cases of the department are pending for years that's why the new cases has been referred to FIA."
The minister said that Pakistan Railways has increased the profile of international firms and now the department has went on to purchase branded products due to their credibility.
Saad Rafique expressed the hope that the present government would improve the working of Locomotives Factory and Carriage Factory in its tenure with the international partnership.
"With out shifting of Transfer of Technology (ToT) these types of problems being facing by the Pakistan Railways," the minister added.
The minister said that 29 locomotives of 3000 horsepower have found no cracks and they running smoothly.
To a question, the minister said that Pakistan Railways would rehabilitate all 27 locomotives by the end of this year, adding that so far the department had rehabilitated 15 locomotives.
Saad Rafique sought two week time from the committee for budgetary proposals for the Public Sector Development Programmes (PSDP) for the financial year 2017-17.
Senior official of the Ministry briefed the body about the deal and said that in 2013, the Pakistan Railways signed a deal with CSR Ziyang for the procurement of 58 diesel-electric locomotives, half of which had 2,000 horsepower and the other half had 3,000 horsepower.
The deal was finalized at a price of $48.431 million. First consignment of five locomotives reached Pakistan on April 5, 2014. By January 2015, the company delivered all the locomotives.
The committee was informed that soon after the cracks are received in the locomotives the Chinese engineers have arrived here and address the issue.
It was informed that the availability of the 29 locomotives of 2000 horsepower had been 98 per cent and each locomotive had more than 200,000 kilometres average operation mileage.
Secretary Ministry of Railways Parveen Agha said that with the induction of 58 locomotives, Pakistan Railways financial position had improved.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Engr Hamid ul Haq, Ramesh Lal, Naseema Hafeez Panezai, Sardar Muhammad Irfan Dogar, Syed Muhammad Saqlain Bukhari and senior official from the Ministry of Railways also present during the meeting.
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