A good news! Pakistan is contemplating to revive and thus upgrade Pakistan Locomotives Factory at Risalpur in its bid to modernize railway infrastructure in the country. Started operations in 1992, PLF, Risalpur has a designed production capacity of 25 diesel electric locomotives per year. It failed to perform as per expectations although it has potential to double the production. Realizing that the locomotives factory will remain an under performing public sector entity without foreign investment and technical assistance, plans have been prepared to seek international help.
The issue came under consideration when Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director-General for Central and West Asia Werner Liepach, visited Pakistan in February, held detailed discussions with Secretary Railways Parveen Agha on the modernization of railways.
The bank expressed its willingness to identify and arrange commercial co-financing for projects of Pakistan Railways, particularly modernizing its infrastructure and rolling stock. Upgradation of Pakistan Locomotives Factory in Risalpur, procurement of new locomotives and creation of a freight company were discussed at length. Mr Werner was of the view that the group`s co-financing for railways project will be the seed money to bring in more commercial funding.
ADB believes the railway sector needs to exalt its infrastructure to provide more inexpensive transport services and recover the market share lost to roads. It merits mentioning that the factory has manufactured a total of 102 diesel electric locomotives since 1993.
