All trains travelling between Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta continue to face delays for another 48 to 72 hours due to repair work on 1,525 feet of train track.
The repair was necessitated after 13 bogies of the PKA-34 freight train were derailed near Rahim Yar Khan on Monday night.
The derailment of the freight train not only caused millions of rupees in losses to Pakistan Railways (PR), it also hit its train operations badly.
According to a spokesperson for PR’s headquarters, train operations were fully restored on Tuesday after the field teams cleared both sides of the track in afternoon.
However, an official of the PR associated with the Train Examination Department in Sukkur said that train operations to will only normalise in 48 to 72 hours.
The official further said that two rescue cranes from Rohri and Samasata reached the site of the disruption on Monday night and relief operations were started at 9.30 pm. The relief operation — including laying of new track — was completed on Tuesday at 10pm.
As a result of the incident, Pakistan Railways (PR) authorities have suspended three officials. Qasim Zahoor, the deputy divisional superintendent for Sukkur, has been suspended over unauthorised absence from his job since last Friday and the inefficiency shown by his team while conducting relief operations.
Sohail Zia, the permanent way inspector in Khanpur, and Amjad Shahzad, the head train examiner in Khanewal, have both been suspended for negligence.
The suspensions took place after a preliminary report on the incident was presented.
The report identified three reasons for the derailment. First, the observers said that the track as weak; secondly, the report mentions flaws in train marshalling — the job of sequencing of the bogies; third, the report also claims that there was an opened joint at the track that should have been tightened with nuts and bolts.
Today, many passengers at Rahim Yar Khan railway station criticised Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and the authorities operating under him for the poor arrangements at train stations.
Stranded passengers complained about shortage of drinking water and a lack of food at the stations. They said that no relief was provided to passengers that had been stranded on platforms for over 20 hours.
