Black gold: Residents rejoice as oil spills out of derailed train

Hundreds of people carrying canes, drums, plastic bottles and home utensils stole thousands of litres of spilled oil.

HYDERABAD:

The residents of Kotri town, Jamshoro, had a field day filling their containers to the brim with free kerosene oil spilling out of an overturned bogie of a goods train.

The incident occurred early on Wednesday when a bogie containing approximately 45,000 litres of kerosene oil flipped over as a Punjab-bound train from Karachi derailed near Kotri Railway Station.

Hundreds of people carrying canes, drums, plastic bottles and home utensils stole thousands of litres of the spilled oil, which is currently priced at Rs106 per litre, before the police and Rangers personnel were called in to disperse the crowd. The looted oil could not be recovered.

According to a Railways official at the Kotri Railway Station, Shabbir Mastoi, the accident blocked traffic on the upcountry track for seven hours. He added that the accident occurred due to over speeding on an ascending track. The investigators, he said, were looking into the engineering wing which is responsible for changing the track lines.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.