RAHIM YAR KHAN: Rail traffic could not be restored on the track between Karachi and Lahore on Wednesday despite the passage of more than one day.

On Tuesday, eight bogies of a coal goods train had derailed near Chak 78-P, Taranda Sawaye Khan, some seven kilometers from Rahim Yar Khan.

Initially, railway officials said the rail traffic would be restored by late on Tuesday. A relief train with a crane arrived late night and started the restoration work on the 250 metres damaged track.

More than 20 passenger trains of up and down destinations were halted at Rahim Yar Khan, Sadiqabad and Khanpur railway stations and passed through the down track. Many up trains, including Greenline, Tezgam and Akbar Bugti Express, were later halted at Rahim Yar Khan railway station as both tracks were closed to accelerate restoration work.

Station Master Manzoor Mashoori said that the track would be restored anytime before Thursday morning.

A passenger of Greenline, Adeel, said that hundreds of passengers of three different trains had been in miserable conditions for several hours while railway authorities did not facilitate them. When some passengers quarreled with train drivers, police were called in.

Pakistan Railways spokesperson Najam Wali Khan told Dawn that he could not give any time frame regarding the restoration of the rail traffic. The top railway spokesperson was also clueless about the cause of the derailment.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018