LAHORE, Sept 16: An eight-member Chinese delegation is in the city to finalise technical and commercial aspects of the second contract for supply of more locomotives to the Pakistan Railways.

The letter of intent (LoI) had already been issued in favour of Chinese firm Dongfang Electric Company and an agreement for the procurement of another 75 locomotives will be signed by the end of this month.

Delegation head Wu Weidong told this reporter on Tuesday that a Chinese firm had already supplied 69 locomotives to the railway under an agreement signed in May 2001.

Most of the locomotives supplied earlier had successfully completed their warranty period as well as mileage and were providing a satisfactory service to the PR for almost six years now.

“At present, more than 70 per cent of the rail traffic both passenger and freight on the Karachi-Peshawar main line is being hauled by 69 locomotives delivered to the PR by Dongfang,” he said.

Regarding the problems faced during initial operation of the Chinese locomotives, Wu said: “Any new locomotive introduced for the first time in broad gauge network of the Pakistan Railway, where heat and dust become very prominent in summer, do get some teething troubles that need adjustments. There had been much more teething problems whenever new locomotives were introduced on the PR network; the General Motors (USA) and Hanshel (Germany) crankshaft was broken, for GE (USA) cylinder piston were burst and for Hitachi (Japan) locomotives bogies were bent out.

“We are here to finalise certain technical matters with the technical and tender committees of the PR for the new locomotives that is a natural part of tender evaluation. The locomotives being supplied by Dongfang were manufactured by Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works that is China’s oldest, largest and best locomotive factory. It has produced over 7,000 locomotives in its more than 100 years history and can produce around 500 rail engines every year,” maintained Wu.

Under the new agreement worth US $107 million, the Chinese firm would deliver 25 completely built-up (CBU) and 50 completely knocked down (CKD) locomotives and the former could be put in operation soon after arrival while the latter would be manufactured at the PR locomotive factory at Risalpur.