KARACHI: A Chine ship Da Yu Xia carrying second batch of 20 locomotives has arrived at the Karachi port. After unloading, all the locomotives would be dispatched to the Railway Diesel Workshop on Monday. Next consignment of 24 locomotives will reach Karachi by the end of this year.
It is worthy to note that 14 out of total 58 locomotives to be imported from China were already reached the city some two months ago. Besides, six locomotives have already been imported from Korea.
The Chinese company would provide two-year maintenance and assistance for these locomotives. Before adding these locomotives to the Pakistan Railways (PR) fleet, a two week-trial would be conducted to technically evaluate their performance.
New locomotives, especially of 3,000 HP capacity, would mainly be used for freight operations. Freight service is the major source of income for railways worldwide and the Pakistan Railways used to earn at least Rs6 billion annually from the operation of eight to 10 freight trains from Karachi to various upcountry destinations daily.
