Pakistan Railways has received its first consignment of rail coaches from China comprising 46 out of the total 230 high-speed modern coaches.
The rail coaches arrived at Karachi port and by the end of this month, they will be transported to Lahore by the Karachi-Lahore main line-1, according to the authorities.
Pakistan Railway’s additional general manager (mechanical) Shahid Aziz told the media that the 46 new coaches received include AC standard and AC parlor classes for passengers and luggage and brake vans.
“The ship carrying them from China reached the Karachi Port on Saturday night. At present, the unloading of the coaches is underway at the port,” Aziz said. “The unloading of the coaches would take three days.”
Test drive of the rail coaches
Talking about the test drive of the new rail coaches, Mr. Aziz said the concerned officers of Pakistan railway would carry out test-run of the coaches on the Main Line-1 (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar via Rohri, Sukkar, Bahawalpur, Khanewal, Lahore and Rawalpindi. After completion of the test run, the commercial use of these new coaches would start by using them for various express passenger trains, he said.
Enhanced passenger services
The agreement for the supply of 230 high-speed coaches to Pakistan Railways was inked between Pakistan and China’s CRRC Tangshan Locomotive & Rolling Stock Company in November 2021 as part of a plan to enhance and upgrade long-distance passenger services in the country.
Under a $140 million contract (Rs.31 billion, approximately), the Chinese company will manufacture 230 up-to-date passenger coaches. Out of the total, 46 coaches will be provided as completely built units while the remaining 184 will be manufactured locally by the Pakistan railway engineers and technical staff under the management of the Chinese experts.
As per the Pakistan Railway spokesperson, passenger rail coaches will comprise of 80 compartments each for economy and air-conditioned class, 20 vans each for luggage and brake and 30 parlor cars.
Two hundred freight vans will be imported, while 620 of such bogies will be prepared at the factory, he added.