LAHORE: Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Saturday showed his grief over the Rohri train accident that occurred last night.
Addressing a press conference, the minister said it was the job of the provincial government to construct gates at railway crossings.
He appealed to Sindh Chief Minister to release pending funds to the railway department so that these the gates can be completed. He said that there were around 3,000 unmanned railway crossings between Karachi and Peshawar.
At least 20 people were killed and several injured after a train collided with a passenger coach near Rohri on Friday night. The incident took place at an unmanned railway crossing when Pakistan Express collided with a passenger bus traveling to Sargodha from Karachi.
Sheikh Rasheed has said that the final decision of ML-1 will be taken on the 10th of May this year. He said with the implementation of the ML-1, all railways crossing from Peshawar to Karachi will be dismantled.
“All railway crossings from Karachi to Peshawar will be removed and the speed will be limited to 160 km/h. This will come into effect on May 10, we have submitted the PC-1 for this,” Rashid said.
“When the ML-1 project is completed, the entire railway track from Karachi to Peshawar will be fenced, thereby eliminating all manned and unmanned railway crossings,” he said.
The minister said Pakistan Railways is going to launch new freight trains before 30th June.
Sheikh Rasheed also announced a 10 percent reduction on the tickets of Business Class AC and AC Standard coaches from Monday for two months only. He also promised to make Pakistan Railways a profitable organisation within five years.
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