Controversy Over Chinese Train Bogies in Pakistan
Federal Minister for Aviation & Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique slams a news report of faulty bogies imported from China for $149 million. According to a news report by Express Tribune, the train bogies that were imported from China were unable to run on Pakistani tracks. After being brought to Pakistan, it was discovered that these trains could not run on Pakistani railway tracks.
The report also said that Chief Mechanical Engineer Mohammad Haseeb had stated that the bogies were being technically fitted for use.
Quoting Express Tribune, Pakistanomy tweeted that government is wasting $149 million of the taxpayers’ money. The tweet also mentioned that 88 Pakistani officials had gone to inspect these bogies and received $100 TADA per day. This stirred quite a strong backlash on Twitter against the government.
Response
Pakistan Railway’s official Twitter account responded to the tweet by stating that all the bogies were tested and are now ready to be driven on tracks. The tweet also claimed that the bogies will be seen on tracks in a few days.
Federal Minister for Aviation & Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique also bashed the news report and respective tweet, claiming that nothing was wrong with the bogies. He took to his Facebook and wrote,
A false and baseless propaganda by sponsored pages. Just to undermine PR image and its efforts to facilitate passengers.
He went on to write that these bogies were inspected by PR inspectors and deemed fit for use. He also wrote that these bogies will be seen on the tracks with the Green Line train within this month!
