Munabao (Rajasthan)
30 January 2006
When Thar Express, the train linking Khokrapar in
Pakistan to Munabao in India resumes its journey after 41 years since the 1965 war, it
will not be without help from an unlikely quarter: The Chinese.
Pakistan Railways has engaged certain Chinese companies for civil construction works
and guage conversion of the railway line linking Mirpus Khas and Khokrapar in the Sindh
province of Pakistan with Munabao in the Indian desert state of Rajasthan.
Sources said Pakistan Railways has outsourced certain activities to Chinese companies
whose workers and engineers are overseeing the work of earthwork, bridges and
conversion of railway line from metre guage to broad guage.
Since Pakistan Railways had to do more of guage conversion than they could hope to
complete on time, they decided to seek men, material and machines besides expertise
from by a global single tender, the sources said.
"There was therefore scope for outsourcing to Chinese companies," the sources told this
newspaper, "Those companies are also understood to have been engaged in
procurement and supply of ballasts, rails and sleepers."
Last year, China's Railways Minister Liu Zhijun reassured his Pakistani counterpart of
his country's financial and technical help for replacing the outdated railway tracks and
signalling system in Pakistan.
China also assured its support to Pakistan connecting Gwadar seaport with the rest of
the country through rail link. Chinese-built locomotives are the newest addition to
Pakistan Railways besides modern passenger coaches from China.
No official figures of the total number of Chinese engineers and other experts based in
Pakistan are available. However, certain media reports put their number at a couple of
thousand including those who are attached to the Pakistan Railways.
The Chinese intervention comes in the backdrop of similar logistical and monetary
support to railroad projects in Myanmar. In October last year, China announced the
completion of the first railway line to Tibet.
A reliable network of rail links will make Beijing's involvement in Gwadar sea port project
in Pakistan more beneficial commercially and strategically. Extending China's east-west
railway to Pakistani cities will link Tibet with ports in Arabian Sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment