Parliamentary panel briefed: Provinces blamed for rail accidents

Says only Punjab and Sindh have responded to his request for funds to man unmanned crossings

ISLAMABAD: As the number of accidents at railway crossings rise across the country, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique has pinned the blame on provincial authorities for failing to provide Pakistan Railways with the funds it needs to man and maintain 1,875 unmanned crossings.

“Rs25 billion are required to man these unmanned level-crossings and Rs2 billion to look after them,” the minister told a parliamentary panel on Wednesday. “No province apart from Punjab and Sindh has responded to my request for finances,” he said.

While acknowledging the need to get rid of unmanned crossings to minimise accidents, Rafique said under section 12 of the Railways Act, 1890, the responsibility for upgrading unmanned level-crossings lies with the concerned provincial governments and road authorities.



He said he wrote letters asking for funds to the chief executives of all provinces in 2016 but Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan have yet to reply. “Only two provinces have promised to provide the funds required of which Punjab has committed to give Rs1.25 billion in two phases till 2018 while Sindh has provided Rs54 million out of the Rs105 million committed for the current financial year.

Official figures of Ministry of Railways – available with The Express Tribune – reveal that there are 3,389 level-crossings of which 1,514 are manned.   Punjab has about 58.5% share in the railways network while Sindh and Balochistan have respectively have 21.25% and 16% share. The K-P has least, 4.25%, share in the network.

Interestingly, during the last three years, 184 incidents have occurred at the manned crossings while about 140 have taken place at unmanned crossings, resulting in death of 98 persons and injuries to 102.



In Punjab, there are 1,079 unmanned crossings of which 475 are vulnerable. Sindh, K-P and Balochistan have 620, 105 and 71 unmanned crossings respectively. About 71 people have died in the last three years at these crossings while the number of people who died of accidents at manned crossings is 27.

The railways ministry report also attributed the rising number of accidents to an increase in the level of railway operations. “This can be imagined from the fact that during 2013, the number of freight trains being run per annum was 182 only which jumped to 3,476 trains in 2016. This is a 19-times increase which is unprecedented in contemporary railways history,” said the ministry’s documents.

According to a survey of Pakistan Railways, 75 unmanned level-crossings were converted into manned during 2015-16 only in Punjab at cost of Rs610 million with funds provided by the province. However, only seven unmanned such crossings were upgraded in 2008-13.

Rafique told the committee that hooters would soon be installed at the level-crossings. “They will start blowing sirens as the train would proceed to avert any accident,” he added.