ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways is set to finalize a plan to obtain 230 passenger coaches and 820 High Capacity Wagons under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).
This initiative aims to help improve the speed of the trains and ensure adherence to fixed timings. An official in the Ministry of Railways on said, “Out of the total, around 46 Completely-Built-Up (CBU) passenger coaches have been procured up till now while the remaining 184 would be manufactured in the country and the coaches would be able to travel at the speed of 160km/h.”
“Pakistan Railways put maximum efforts to complete rehabilitation and reconstruction work on the railway track along with improving the speed of the locomotives to carry passengers to their respective destinations on time,” he added.
The official further stated that infrastructure, including the track and signaling system from Karachi to Peshawar, Main Line-I (ML-I), and doubling of track from Lahore to Peshawar (462.20 Km) was also being revamped.
The length of the track was 1,726 kilometers and the department has planned to improve speed up to 160 kilometers per hour in the project of up-gradation of ML-I under the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC), he noted.
He said the rolling stock was being procured under theproject would be capable of running at a speed of 160 km/h whereas the department had a dedicated fleet of 55 diesel-electric locomotives of 4000-4500 HP for freight operation to cater maximum haulage at higher speed.
“The Computer Based Interlocking (CBI) system is installed on 48 stations of ML-I, to improve signaling and interlocking for higher speed and safety of train operation,” the official added.
