LAHORE, Feb 5: The Railway police have busted a gang involved in black-marketing of train tickets and arrested five of them from Faisalabad.

The police recovered 647 tickets worth Rs406,630 from the possession of the accused, who included a chief booking clerk, General Manager (Operations) Aurangzeb Khan told a press conference at the Railways Headquarters here on Thursday. Additional General Managers Iqbal Khatri, Khwaja Nazir and Saleemur Rehman Akhund and Railway IG Ahmad Nasim were also present.

Faisalabad had become notorious for black-marketing of railway tickets. Mr Nasim formed a raiding party under SSP Munir Ahmad Chishti who raided the spot a day before Eid and arrested the accused red-handed, Mr Khan said.

Faisalabad station SHO Aamir Mahmood was suspended for his failure to check such activities.

The arrested people were identified as Gulzar Ahmad, Khurram Shahzad, Muhammad Akram, Rana Saeed and Muhammad Anees.

Investigations were underway and action would be taken against the railway officials involved in this business, the general manager said.

He said the recovered tickets were booked under fake names. There was no loss to Railways but passengers were being fleeced, he added.

Answering a question, he said action would be taken against such black-marketeers in other cities too and Karachi would be the next target.

Regarding steps to avoid such activities in future, he said computerization of tickets was one of the measures taken by the authorities to avoid black-marketing or misuse of the reservation facility.

"We are also experimenting with provision of a handy machine for issuing computerized tickets to passengers to avoid embezzlement by ASTs," Mr Khatri said.

He said that computerized reservation had been started on a trial basis in Faisalabad and Multan and would be formally launched soon.

To another question, the general manager said that Tuesday's train derailment occurred due to flaws in a welded joint of the rails. Mr Akhund said that the track had been strengthened for restoration of railway traffic.

Answering a query, he said routine inspections of rails continued throughout the year without any break but they could not detect internal flaws or fissures. Special ultrasound machines were used for the purpose.The general manager said inspection by ultrasound was done when the rail joints were welded. However, he would not say whether or not re-inspection of all tracks through this technique had been ordered.