Pakistan Railways technical and non-technical staff was working day and night while utilizing all available resources to restore the rail service in flood affected Sindh and Balochistan provinces. “The train service between Quetta and Karachi Divisions was suspended after railway bridges collapsed and rail tracks became submerged in water due to floods in the region,” an official of the Ministry of Railways told APP. He said that in the remaining divisions around seven to eight bridges were damaged due to which the train operations were suspended in the flood hit areas. The official said the train service could not be restored until the bridges and tracks were cleared of the floodwater.
He said the floods and non-stop rains in the country had caused a loss of more than Rs 11 billion to the Pakistan Railways, including infrastructure damages worth Rs 8 billion due to collapse of the bridges and tracks, while ticket refunds, diesel and suspension of train operations had cost the department Rs 3.5 billion. The official said that the department had deployed technical bridge staff at various sections for the repair of the damaged bridges and the train operation would only be restored after the completion of the reconstruction work on the bridges.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Railways had suspended its passenger operation at track ML-I from Khanpur to Hyderabad due to flood near Nawabshah. The department’s divisional and regional headquarters had decided to close the passenger operation on this particular track of ML-I, while the other track of ML-I from Peshawar to Multan would remain operational.
