KARACHI – While train services from various junctions was halted on Friday due to shortage of fuel, cheques worth Rs 200 million issued by Pakistan Railway (PR) to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) bounced once again, sources said. PR, which owes around Rs 1 billion to PSO has started closing train operations due to lack of required fuel.
But PSO, which has threatened to suspend fuel supply, has claimed that the supply was not stopped as yet despite continued defaults on part of railways. According to sources in PSO, cheques of worth Rs 200 million issued by PR had bounced on Thursday and handed over to the railway administration.
“We have, however, slowed down the fuel supply, no suspension has taken place in the last few days,” they said. PSO has supplied almost 3 million litres during the week to railways, they said. As the supplied fuel was sufficient for train operations for more than six days, the closure of passenger train operations was unjustified, the sources added. Hundreds of passengers suffered badly on Friday after railways halted more than nine trains due to the supposed shortage of fuel.
According to the sources, all halted trains were operating when they were stopped after covering some distance from the starting point. As a result, the passengers on board suffered badly for several hours until they were accommodated in other coaches coming from various routes. Beside the closure of various trains in the last two days, PR also suspended its train services in Balochistan on Wednesday citing fuel shortages.
The service was resumed after getting fuel from Karachi. PR had reduced its oil stock reserves from three months to one month due to the financial crunch.
