Govt approves Rs 7.834bn for rehabilitation of railway
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Railways has demanded the government to provide financial assistance for rehabilitation of its infrastructure and systems damaged after December 27 riots and the government has approved Rs 7.834 billion for this purpose, official sources said here Friday.
Pakistan Railwayss infrastructure was heavily damaged during the turbulent protests erupted in the entire country after the tragic assassination of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on 27th December 2007.
The entire country went into the grip of shock and awe with violent public reaction, which crippled the country, especially 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 total lawlessness as hundreds of people went on the rampage after Benazirs assassination. These attacks on the Railways 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, 139 coaches of passenger trains and 2 track machines were also set ablaze while a number of cranes were burnt and damaged.
The havoc completely paralysed the Railways system from Karachi to Sadiqabad for five consecutive days (Dec 27 to 31, 2007). The train operation, was, however, restored on 31-12-2007 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 operation as a number of stations are still closed. The train operation is being managed by extending the block sections and reception/dispatch of trains being worked on paper lane clear (PLC) in the absence of normal signaling, 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 improve punctuality, the sources added.
Pakistan Railways owns 524 diesel and 19 electric locomotives, out of which 315 diesel electric locomotives and 19 electric locomotives have already outlived their normal economic life by the end of December 2007. The annual requirement of induction of new locomotives is approximately 20 whereas actual induction of new locomotives during the last 10 years has only been 86, which has resulted in shortage of locomotives for working passenger and freight trains. The position has further deteriorated as 15 locomotives have completely been burnt as a result of the riots, which erupted on December 27.
In total 65 station buildings were damaged besides a number service buildings and structure; 24 stations on Karachi Railway division were damaged, out of which 12 were set on fire and 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.
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 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.
The burnt situation has compelled Pakistan Raiways 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.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
that is what karachi really needs right now!karachi needs to be cleaned up, it needs better infrastructure, better organization. we need to bring back the "City of Lights" to its former glory. 
