Railway track between Lahore, Quetta and Karachi 'unfit' for use

Officials say trains to begin operations only after tracks and bridges declared safe for use

LAHORE:

The railways officials declared the tracks between Lahore, Quetta and Karachi as 'unfit' for use on Wednesday after assessing the damage caused to the track and signal systems following the floods.

The Express News reported that the decision to operate trains between the three cities has been delayed once again.

Subsequent to that, the process of booking and reserving train tickets online was brought to a halt, while a notification was also issued to all the commercial officers to pause bookings of all seven divisions.

As per officials, passenger and freight trains will begin operations only after the railway tracks and bridges have been declared fit.

The train operations have been completely suspended for close to a month owing to the devastating country-wide floods.

The inspection process for railway tracks, signal systems and bridges is currently underway.

Read PR daily suffers Rs90m flood-induced losses

Additional General Manager Railway Infrastructure Arshad Salam Khattak has said that it will only be possible to resume operations after the inspection team has submitted a report stating the situation to be satisfactory.

Railways suffer Rs15bn loss

The incessant rains and floods in the country have caused a loss of Rs15 billion to the basic railways infrastructure. The repair work of damaged bridges and tracks has been estimated to be around Rs8 billion, whereas ticket refunds, diesel, administrative affairs and suspension of train operations have cost the department Rs3.5 billion.

A few days ago the Pakistan Railways suspended the operations of five major express trains on the Main Line-I (ML-I) until the rehabilitation of the railway tracks.

The officials said the Pakistan Railways main line was under flood-water between Tando Masti Khan and Gambat, and Mehrabpur and Lakhro sections. Similarly, the track was submerged at various points in Balochistan.