72 percent locomotives of Railways in functional condition.

ISLAMABAD -- Around 72 percent of diesel-electric locomotives of Pakistan Railways out of a total of 461 are in a functional condition which is not sufficient to run the entire operations of the department.

Railways have 332 locomotives in a running condition out of a total of 461, while 129 (28 percent) diesel-electric locomotives were non-functional, an official in the Ministry of Railways told reporter.

Of 129 locomotives around 41 were under normal overhauling schedules and maintenance. The official said the locomotives would be rolled out after routine schedule maintenance turn by turn.

He said that 11 locomotives met with an accident on various dates and locations, and fabrication work and procurement of spares were under process for these locomotives.

The official said that 69 DPU class diesel-electric locomotives were held up for repair and need major modification while eight locomotives were temporarily deleted and under condemnation process due to overage.

To a question, he said that Pakistan Railways was planning to procure as many as 25 diesel-electric locomotives for various shunting points across the country which would help to replace outdated locomotives that to be scrapped very soon.

The project for the procurement and manufacturing of 25 shunting locomotives would be implemented in three years at an estimated cost of Rs. 14 billion, he added.

Currently, he said that only 51 locomotives were...