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Tuesday July 22, 2025

Railways signals reviving tie-ins with local auto vendors

By Our Correspondent
April 16, 2019

KARACHI: Pakistan Railways will support local auto parts manufacturing industry by procuring all those locomotive/carriage parts that can be produced in the country by the vendors without having to import them, a minister said on Monday.

“With 70 million commuters, Pakistan Railway can be a huge market for auto parts makers,” Federal Minister for Railway Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said while addressing the Gala Dinner of Pakistan Auto Parts Show (PAPS) 2019.

Inviting Pakistan Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM) to explore joint venture opportunities with railways, the minister said, “Until and unless businessmen come forward we cannot address economic challenges”. Sharing his vision, Rasheed said every member of the society and organisation should step to the fore to deal with the issue of unemployment. “Auto industry has the potential of addressing unemployment issues,” he added.

Referencing his visit to Toyota, an industrial city in Japan, he said the whole town was involved in producing some sort of products for Toyota Motor Corporation, creating employment opportunities for whole community. Meanwhile, Chairman PAAPAM Ashraf Sheikh said, “Pakistan Railways used to be a big customer for the auto parts makers and a lot of members grew in size with the growth of railways in procuring auto parts locally; however, situation changed with railways increased reliance on import of parts.” Similarly, Sheikh said a strong localisation plan in shape of auto parts development policy needed to be in place so that more import substitution might be created. “Integration of PAAPAM members with international companies for joint ventures has become a need of the time,” he added.

Chairman PAPS Mashood Ali Khan said the minister’s cooperation on this subject would enlighten and pave ways for developing the local auto parts industry to reach the desired levels of production and utilisation of our industry on catching the need of the railways to develop and repair the coaches lying unusable in the railway yards.

Thanking all the delegates and sponsors for making PAPS the largest auto show of Pakistan, Khan said that PAPS had become a brand and symbol of Pakistan’s automobile engineering and auto industry would soon prove a launch pad for economic turnaround. International exhibitors, members of PAAPAM, original equipment manufacturers and government representatives were also present on the occasion.