Rebuilding of collapsed bridge begins

Rail link with Balochsitan to be restored by December

QUETTA:

Train service between Balochistan and the rest of the country is expected to be restored by the end of this year which is cut off for the last one and a half months following the destruction of a vital bridge in the devastating flash floods.

Divisional Superintendent of Pakistan Railways Balochistan, Nisar Ahmed Khan said that work on the reconstruction of the bridge that collapsed in the Bolan district of the province started on Thursday and will take time to complete.

“The construction work will be completed till December 31,” he told The Express Tribune.

“National Logistic Cell (NLC) has been authorized for the reconstruction of the bridge,” Nisar Ahmed Khan said, adding that the necessary machinery was moved to the area to start the construction work.

For the timely completion of the construction, Mach station has been declared as the station headquarters of the railways, he noted.

He said the 11-kilometer track between Sibi and Jacobabad was completely submerged so the traffic was suspended.

“This is also one of the main reasons behind the suspension of the rail connectivity,” he said.

Pakistan Railways has started work on the reconstruction of the bridge at Hirak, Bolan district, he said, adding that bridge was built in the British era in the early 1880s in the rugged mountainous terrain of Bolan.

However, flash floods resulted in the destruction of the bridge on August 25.

The destruction of this vital link disconnected rail connectivity between Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, and other areas of the country.

Pakistan railways, however, restored train service between Pakistan and Iran.

He maintained that floods damaged the railway track in 104 spots between Quetta and Taftan but it was successfully repaired.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2022.