ISLAMABAD       -       Pakistan Railways would
receive the first batch of 46
new coaches from China on
December 15 which would
not only upgrade the current rolling stock but also
provide modern traveling
facilities to the passengers.
“Out of the total 230 coaches, 46 will be provided as
completely built units and
the remaining 184 to be
manufactured in the county
by the department’s engineers and technical staff
under the supervision of the
Chinese experts,” an official
told APP. He said the coaches would have the capacity
to run at the train’s speed
of 160 kilometres per hour
and the teams of Pakistan
Railways were in China for
the inspection of the prototypes of the coaches as well
as the modern high-capacity
wagons. The official said the
experts of China were also
proving training to the technical staff of Pakistan Railways on the manufacturing
of such rolling stock. He said
Pakistan Railway was planning to upgrade the dilapidated track as the KhanpurKotri section was not fit for
high-speed train operation
while most of the Main LineI (ML-I) parts were fit for
the 120km per hour train
operation. “After the completion of the ML-I project
under the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC),
the entire ML-1 track would
have the capacity to bear
the rolling stock operations
at the speed of 160km per
hour,” he added. He said
that under another similar
nature contract, a Chinese
company would manufacture 800 freight wagons and
20 brake wagons.