OKARA: The death of a post-graduate student after she was run over by a Karachi-bound train on Friday night has revived the long-standing demand of citizens for a level crossing.

Nabeeha Mukhtar, a resident of 14/1.A.L, was strolling back home after attending her MA English class at the University of Okara when she was run over by a train along GT Road.

The girl died on the spot and the incident cast a pall of gloom over her home and the university.

Some people condemned the railways authorities who had been ignoring the demand for establishing a level crossing at a point where scores of students and other people daily move on foot or by two-wheelers. They said Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq had committed during an address to a public gathering in April 2016 (when he came to lay the foundation stone of the model city railway station) that a level crossing would be built to facilitate people.

Even back in 2006, also people had demanded the then minister, Dr Attaur Rehman, to order establishment of a level crossing when he inaugurated the university (then University of Lahore). It was sanctioned by the railways administration on a letter issued by then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani but the idea was dropped on the pretext of an agreement with the World Bank on a railway track doubling project.

In 2015, the students of the university blocked GT Road to remind the authorities of their commitment. Officials of the National Highway Authority (NHA) and Renala tehsil administration dispersed the students with a pledge to construct a U-turn and a bus stop for the student in the first phase of a project but it was not materialised.

The students of the University of Okara have to face a great deal of inconvenience in the absence of proper access road. They have long been demanding proper facilities such as access road and level crossing near the institution.

Funds were allocated to construct a road from Kot Bari level crossing to the university north of the railway track but, like many other initiatives, it too could not be materialised.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2017