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PR receives Rs 528.5m against Rs 7.834bn

By Ijaz Kakakhel

ISLAMABAD: The government has released a meagre amount of Rs 528.5 million against the total promised amount of Rs 7.834 billion for Pakistan Railway’s project, namely, ‘Damages to Railways Assets during riots in Dec 2007’ after the assassination of Benazir Bhutho, sources told Daily Times here on Saturday.

After the incident, the ministry of railways demanded of the government to provide Rs 7.834 billion to provide financial assistance for rehabilitation of its infrastructure and systems damaged after Dec 27 riots and the government had approved this amount in March 2008. However, the government has released only Rs 528.5 million to the concerned project after a delay of one year. Such a situation would not enable the PR to run the railways network in an efficient manner.

PR’s infrastructure was heavily damaged during the turbulent protests erupting in the entire country after the tragic assassination of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.

The entire country went into the grip of shock and awe with violent public reaction, which crippled the country, especially in the province of Sindh, where the protesting mobs smashed Railways installations, ransacked station buildings, set ablaze locomotives, coaches, track machines/cranes and other important infrastructure.

There was utter havoc as hundreds of people went on the rampage after Benazir’s assassination. These attacks on the Railway’s property had far reaching implications. In Karachi and Sukkur divisions, 65 stations were either set ablaze or damaged, 23 locomotive were burnt while 12 were damaged on Karachi-Tando Adam mainline section, 6 stations on Kotri-Dadu section, 3 on Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas section and 3 stations on Hyderabad-Badin section. 139 coaches of passenger trains and 2 track machines were also set ablaze while a number of cranes were burnt and damaged.

The girder bridges were also damaged by setting wooden bridge timbers on fire, besides dismantling track at many places. In total 36 bridges were damaged in both Karachi and Sukkur divisions out of which 22 were damaged in Karachi division and 14 in Sukkur division including replacement of 2,733 wooden sleepers, crossing and bridge timbers. The havoc completely paralyzed the Railways system from Karachi to Sadiqabad for five consecutive days (Dec 27 to 31, 2007). The train operation, was, however, restored on Dec 31, 2007 at a modest level with hectic efforts.

The major set back was to the signaling infrastructure as the apparatus, internal cabling and connections etc. at the stations were completely burnt. This caused serious disturbance to normal operations as a number of stations are still closed. In the absence of normal signaling, the train operation is being managed by extending the block sections and reception/dispatch of trains being worked on paper lane clear (PLC) which is causing a detention of almost four hours to each express train.

The assets damaged and lost have to be re-built as their absence will have a collateral effect, affecting even those that continue to function. The asset destruction would affect the targets for both passenger and freight sectors during the current financial year and cause decline in the long-term growth potential of the railways. It is therefore, extremely vital that the damages assets are rehabilitated as quickly as possible to ensure normal train operations in Sukkur and Karachi divisions thus eliminating detentions and improving punctuality, the sources added.

The telecommunication equipment provided in the ASM offices such as control telephone, RAD phone, V-wireless telephone, VHF radio sets including power supplies, batteries, stabilizers, circuit breakers, wooden racks, coaxial cables etc. were totally burnt on mainline between Mirpur Mathelo-Rohri-Nawab Shah-Hyderabad-Karachi and on branch line between Kotri-Dadu-Larkana-Habib Kot-Jacobabad-Kashmor colony. Resultantly, 53 VHF radios complete with accessories, 54 control phones, 37 V-wireless telephones, 77 batteries, 70 telephone sets, 7 diesel generators, 7 telegraphic consoles, 55 wooden racks and 2 public address system complete with accessories were burnt.

This dire situation has compelled Pakistan Railways to scale down its operations keeping in view the resource constraints. PR has curtailed 19 trains (16 passenger and 3 freight trains) on main line corridor and branch lines. The trains are suffering four hours extra time between Karachi and Khanpur resulting in extra fuel consumption and inconvenience to the traveling public.

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