The ministry said that the accidents had taken place between August 2018 to June 2019.
Out of 74 accidents, 20 accidents were of freight trains derailing while another 20 occurred at unmanned railway crossings.
The ministry further stated in its reply that 19 passenger trains derailed and three other accidents were caused by fire.Inquiries into 54 accidents have been completed, while 20 others are still under investigation.
At least 150 killed in railway accidents in past five years
During the past five years, a total of 384 train accidents took place in which over 150 people lost their lives.
According to the reports available with South Punjab News, obsolete railway tracks, faulty signal system and heavy loads have been cited as factors in most of these incidents.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has also failed to make significant improvements in the state of affairs at Pakistan Railways, as the ML-1 railway track has completed 55 per cent of its life, while ML-2 and ML-3 have surpassed 82 per cent and 80pc of their usable lives, respectively
ML-1 is considered as the lifeline of Pakistan Railways, said officials, while admitting that the railway track has depreciated by 55pc, due to which increasing issues are being faced.
The report further states that Pakistan Railway has estimated the upgrading project cost for ML-1 in excess of Rs324 billion, of which Rs4.5 billion have been earmarked in the current year’s budget.
Around 80 minor or major accidents have been recorded since Sheikh Rasheed took charge of the railways ministry.Officials familiar with the development revealed that almost 60 per cent bridges (1300) bridges used for both the passengers’ trains and good trains have been met their dead end. Pakistan Railways met losses of some Rs2 billion due to these accidents accordingly, the official added.
The official further said different trains of Pakistan Railways met more than 562 accidents in past six years. Some 75 accidents in 2013, 70 in 2014, 104 in 2015, 89 in 2016, 78 in 2017, 67 in 2018 and 80 accidents in past 11 months. As many as 220 accidents were major and the rest of the incidents were considered minor.
The data further revealed there were 74 inquiries conducted to probe the reasons behind these accidents. Some 67 inquiries were finalised and 13 punishments were awarded to different individuals, according to data ‘only lower staff was blamed for all these accidents and very rare conviction occurred, unfortunately.”
As many as 26 officials are also facing investigation after they were accused of corruption or misusing their authority, revealed the officials who claimed that non-technical officials were railways’ affairs, a major reason behind the great losses. “Our internal report says all trains tracks are needed to be revamped in no time. If it does not happen in coming months then the ratio of accidents (God forbid) would alarmingly rise,” a senior officer of Pakistan Railways shared.
The data also revealed, some 38 of 66 operational trains met losses of over Rs1.6 billion in the past nine months. Bolan Mail suffered losses of Rs225 million, Samjhota Express (between India and Pakistan) Rs12 million, KKK Express Rs311, Ravi Express Rs101 million, Sandal Express Rs55 million, Sargodha Express Rs52 million, Chenab Express Rs43 million, Badin Express Rs53 million, Warish Shah Rs84 million, Karana Passengers met losses worth Rs67 million.
