KARACHI, Sept 8: Thousands of passengers were left stranded at railway stations here on Friday after a makeshift bridge at Ran Pathani, some 80 kilometers from Karachi, was washed away in rain, causing suspension of train service from the city yet again.

The authorities had built a temporary bridge parallel to the actual railway bridge which had collapsed due to heavy rain on June 30, causing suspension of the train traffic from Karachi. The traffic was restored on August 21 through a temporary bridge, which too succumbed to rain on Friday.

“The flash-flood carried away both up and down diversions around 2:30pm,” said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, Divisional Superintendent Railways Karachi.

The DS, accompanying the Railways Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, visited the site of the collapsed bridge in district Thatta, the area which had received about 200mm of rain in 16 hours.

Work on the permanent link was in progress, and would take time, said Mr Khaskheli. However, work on temporary diversion would start as soon as water receded, he added.

Officials said that earlier, around 11am, the train tracks at Guddu railway station, located between Kotri and Hyderabad, came under water, suspending the traffic to and from Hyderabad. Tracks at Jhampir railway station submerged around 12:30pm.

However, the train traffic between Karachi and Hyderabad came to a halt after the collapse of the Ran Pathani bridge, they said.

The officials said the Khushhal Khan Khattak, Sukkur Express and K-2 Passenger trains did manage to reach the city, while departure of Shalimar Express, Shah Rukn-i-Alam, and Shah Latif Express was made possible before the bridge collapse.

Unable to give any timeframe for revival of the train service from Karachi, the authorities announced refund of ticket money to the intending passengers.

However, with hundreds of passengers thronging the counters to get their money back, the officials soon ran out of cash and disappeared, causing a chaos at the cantonment railway station.

Hundreds of passengers, along with their luggage, kept waiting for the officials to return, but in vain. The authorities did not even make an announcement that they were strapped for cash.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Railways Workers Federation expressed its surprise over the suspension of train service, saying such a thing never happened in the history of Pakistan.

Federation Chief Manzoor Razi said the Ran Pathani bridge collapsed due to sheer negligence of railway authorities, and they should be held accountable for that. There were about 4,500 railway bridges in various areas across the country, but why it was Ran Pathani’s only, he asked.