Amazing how Pakistan is buying from China locomotives and engines without any need to buy as engines and locomotives are produced locally. $150 million in kickbacks and good business for China.
The real ‘derailment’ that is. Pakistan Railways, the largest civil employer in the country, has seen a major downfall in recent years. There is, however, a major surge in the rolling back of railway operations and closing of train services during this year than all previous years combined. Railway is left with a skeleton of what was inherited from the British after the division of India in 1947 and even this network is being ransacked at light’s speed. The basket case of railway presents an ideal opportunity to look into what has gone wrong with Pakistan.
The decline started almost immediately.
Many routes were closed and the tracks were uprooted. Still, basic railway operations were running rather smoothly and people had a cheaper and faster way of travel.
The major decline started when General Zia took over in 1977 and diversified the operations of his army away from safeguarding the country’s interests and into entrepreneurship and money making. An army logistics cell was set up that snatched the freight business from the railways. This caused a major dent on railway’s operations as freight business was its major source of revenue. The downfall continued till the next general arrived in 1999. Musharraf appointed the ex chief of ISI General Javed Ashraf Qazi as the railway minister and he hammered the final nail into the coffin of railways.
Looks like China is taking Pakistan for a ride .............. All weather friendship..
Pakistan Railways procured 69 locomotives from a Chinese company, Dong Fong, a few years ago, a purchase, which was termed as first major financial corruption scandal against Musharraf’s dictatorial regime. Media repeatedly highlighted the corruption and educated the people that though the Chinese locomotives were much cheaper as compared to the international standard locomotives, the lifetime cost was three to four times higher.
Out of these 69 locomotives, seven were completely dumped as result of accidents for being inferior in quality and more than half of the rest are dumped in Railways workshops for being scrapped for obvious reasons of their inability to come on the hilly railway track of our country.
china is not pushing the engines down our throat force fully, its our own corrupt govt and politicians who choose to buy things from wherever they get higher commission, and a chance to do that again. plus the company from where they are buying is not run by Chinese govt.
we only added 300-400 miles of rail after partition, and obviously that was done because of a reason. It didnt as feasible as trucks, like Sindsagar already mentioned here.
^ both trucks and trains have their own jobs. both are necessary, development should be done for both. if trucks can reach door to door it doesn't mean trains cannot reach city to city. this is plain and simple miss management and corruption, and nothing else, we cannot justify it no matter what