Tezgam mishap final report not finalised yet

PAC subcommittee holds meeting presided over by Senator Sherry Rehman

ISLAMABAD: Railways officials on Wednesday told a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sub-panel that the final report of the Tezgam train accident had not been submitted yet.

The PAC subcommittee held a meeting, presided over by Senator Sherry Rehman, to review objections over the railways’ audit paras for the year 2014-2015.

The railways secretary informed the committee that the country’s train tracks were 7,800 kilometres long and 80% of them were around 80 to 90 years old.

“If there’s no progress on the ML-1 project, being executed under the CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor], even running the existing trains will become difficult,” he added.

The audit authorities told the committee that Rs29 million was spent on the Karachi Circular Railway from 2004 to 2007 but no record of where this money was spent had been provided.

The committee directed the Railways to provide the record to the audit authorities in two weeks. The audit authorities further told committee that 4,147 acres of Railways land in Dera Ghazi Khan was not registered under its name.

Around 1,100 acres are registered under the name of private owners. The committee recommended to the provincial government to transfer the land to the Railways.