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| February 28, 2007 | Wednesday | Safar 10, 1428 |
Fire safety finds place in railways upgrades
RAWALPINDI, Feb 27: Pakistan Railway has decided to upgrade safety standards in all passenger coaches and equip these with fire extinguishers, official sources told Dawn.
Though train fires are rare, all rehabilitated and modernised air-conditioned coaches have been equipped with fire fighting equipment, while plans are underway to upgrade non-AC coaches on similar lines.
Attendants in each coach have been tasked with maintaining the equipment.
The need for having fire extinguishers in every coach has gained much importance following the incident of Samjhota Express in India.
The coaches being manufactured in Pakistan are much better when compared with those of Indian Railways, according to Federal Minister for Railways Shaikh Rashid Ahmad.
Each coach of Pakistan Railway has four doors in addition to the ones connecting it to other coaches of the train. The railways department is also exploring the possibility of introducing an emergency door in each coach.
Regrettably, the coaches of Samjhota Express train had no inter-connecting doors that contributed to the high death toll. Casualties could have been less, if the door were not locked and the train had inter-connecting points, the minister said.
More than half of the rolling stock of Pakistan Railways has so far been converted into ‘new generation train’, giving much room to the railways to improve its services. The use of old- fashioned coaches is being limited to local trains running on branch lines.
With the introduction of several new trains, the strength of passenger coaches on track has been enhanced to nearly 1,300.
Official sources told Dawn that Pakistan Railway planned to rehabilitate and modernise another 400 passenger coaches during the current financial year.
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has already approved the plan, which now needs to be formally approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council. These coaches will be upgraded at the Carriage Factory Islamabad.
Nearly 700 coaches have already been modernised and being extensively used by Pakistan Railway on mail and express trains.
The passenger coaches being built at the carriage factory are of latest design and equipped with disc brake. These are safe to be run at upto 140 kilometres per hour using the Chinese technology.
Pakistan Railway imported 40 passenger coaches as completely built units, while 115 have been assembled and manufactured at the carriage factory till January 2007.
These coaches are being utilised on the mail and express trains on Rawalpindi-Lahore-Karachi, Lahore-Faisalabad and Rawalpindi-Quetta links.
Manufacturing kits for remaining 30 coaches have also been received and work on these is in progress.
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