PR told to ensure safety measures in all trains

NA railways panel reviews June 7 Ghotki incident, privatisation of trains, ML-1

LAHORE:

The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Railways met here on Tuesday at the Pakistan Railways headquarters' committee room and discussed the matters pertaining to Ghotki train incident, privatisation of trains, ML-1 and others.

The meeting was held under committee Chairman Muhammad Mueen Wattoo and attended by its members Muhammad Bashir Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Dr Muhammad Afzal Khan, Tahir Iqbal, Nusrat Wahid, Engineer Sabir Hussain, Ali Pervaiz Malik, Muhammad Khan Daha, Pir Syed Fazal Ali Shah and Rumeesh Laal.

The meeting was briefed about the collision of Sir Syed Express and Millat Express near Ghotki on June 7.

The railways officials apprised the meeting about action against those who were found responsible, financial assistance to the deceased and the injured of the incident and further progress over it.

The committee instructed the railways administration to ensure safety measures at all trains’ compartments besides fire extinguishing instruments. The meeting was also briefed on other train accidents.

A four-member committee was also formed to submit a report over encroachments and shops allotted on lease in the past in Sukkur and other divisions. The meeting was briefed on disposal of scrap procedure adopted by the PR.

The railways officials apprised the meeting that process of selling the scrap was being conducted in a transparent manner through tenders in newspapers.

The committee also sought a record of the bidding process of scrap and asked the officials to share its details with the committee.

The meeting was also briefed on privatisation of passenger and freight trains and their maintenance and cleanliness. The meeting was told that five trains were being run on private partnership and all these were bringing good profit.

The ML-1 project and railways upgradation was also discussed in detail during the meeting.

Present status of profit and loss of Royal Palm Golf and Country Club, Lahore was also reviewed and discussed in the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Executive Officer Railway Nisar Ahmed Memon, Secretary Railway Board Zafar Zaman Ranjha, Additional General Manager Infrastructure Asim Mateen Zaidi and others.