April 18, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Pakistan Railways suffered a loss of Rs139,663,738 due to twenty-eight accidents in the first couple of months of this year, two of which were the result of sabotage.

The compensation paid to the victims was in addition to this amount, and totalled Rs5,680,000.

Three passengers were killed and 166 injured. The two fatal accidents were the derailment of 108-Down Lahore Express and 41-up Karakorum Express.

Statistics placed before the National Assembly by Railways Minister Mian Shamim Haider in reply to a question by Belum Hasnain showed that four of these accidents had occurred due to negligent driving on part of road users, four due to human failure, four because of rolling stock, while track defects were responsible for another four accidents.

Signal and inter-locking gear defects were culprit in another accident. Sabotage and multiple reasons accounted for another four accidents, while causes of seven mishaps could not be ascertained.

Among these mishaps, the derailment of goods trains was the most common, as 14 goods trains derailed during this period. Seven derailments of passenger trains constituted the second highest number of the accidents. There were five collisions at level-crossings and one instance each of collision of goods train and derailment of mixed train.

There are 249 trains plying in the country on different routes.

In reply to another question, the minister acknowledged that 55 kms rail track from Taxila to Havelian was weak due to unserviceable sleepers. He said 10,000 sleepers were replaced during the last two years improving seven kms of the track. This year 5,000 more sleepers were planned to be replaced improving another four kms. The minister said the rest of the track would be upgraded in a piecemeal fashion because of the poor financial position of the railways.

Meanwhile, the house was told that a double line new railway track was being laid between Lodhran to Khanewal (121 kms) and Khanewal to Raiwind (246 kms).