The miseries of the commuters selecting railway as a mood of traveling continue multiplying as delay in departure and arrival of almost all the trains was witness at the City Railway Station on Friday. It has been reported that the span of trains delay exceeded to 9 hours and passengers as well as their relatives were seen waiting for the arrival and departure of express trains. Ironically, the Pakistan Railways authorities failed to control the situation even after the release of Rs 2 billion by the Finance Ministry.
According to 117 (Railway Inquiry), 23-Up Quetta Express was about three hours late, 15-Up Karachi Express five hours, 9-Up Allama Iqbal Express eleven hours and 1-Up Khyber Mail Express was delayed by five hours. The passengers of other trains also experienced the same. Karakarum Express and Karachi Express are important trains of the network but, unfortunately, both of them were expected to leave Lahore for Karachi with a five hours delay. General Manager Operations Pakistan Railways Saeed Akhtar said the department was facing acute financial problems due to non-provision of financial resources by the government for the last four years, adding that faulty engines had not been repaired because of non-availability of funds and around 60 percent engines were currently out of order. He said due to dearth of engines, Pakistan Railways was shutting down trains between small cities to keep them running between major destinations.
On the other hand, a spokesman said if financial resources were disbursed timely to the Railways, it would not have to face severe crisis. He said the main reason of miserable condition of PR was maladministration and mismanagement besides discouragement of reforms. He said Railways needed 400 engines to overcome the deficit, adding that the government must ensure huge investment in the organisation to save it from closure. On the other hand, Divisional Superintendent Lahore Javaid Anwar Boobak, who assumed the charge on Friday, said the amount of Rs 2 billion was not sufficient for the department and the amount would be utilised on purposes like salaries, pensions and bills of gas and electricity. He said there was no shortage of fuel.
He said the PR staff was well skilled and energetic but nothing could be done in the absence of required number of locomotives. It has also been reported by the insiders that the situation might exacerbate further as the Railways has only one day fuel in Lahore Division and owing to which operations of many trains would have to be rescheduled from Saturday.
