LAHORE: Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid claimed on Saturday that the rail network across the country facilitated thousands of passengers just before lockdown amid the new coronavirus pandemic and did not abandon them unlike neighbouring India.

“Had Pakistan Railways discontinued its operations before lockdown, a large number of people would have been stranded at several cities and roads. But two days prior to the lockdown, we facilitated as many as 165,000 passengers in reaching their destinations from Karachi to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab,” he said at a press conference on Saturday.

Differentiating the situation with India, he said, “Compare this with India, where people began travelling on foot due to the [sudden] closure of transport leading to deaths of 52 people.”

Regarding the resumption or non-resumption of rail operations, he said if the government decides to not extend the ongoing lockdown in the country, scheduled to end on April 14, then the Pakistan Railways (PR) would partially begin its operations by running 20 passenger trains.

“The public is pressurising us to resume as they are unable to travel especially during emergency situations. But, we cannot do so in view of the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. However, we will partially resume our operation with 20 trains from April 15 with the PM’s permission. That is if the government decides to end the lockdown on April 14,” he told journalists.

To contain the spread of Covid-19, Pakistan Railways suspended 12 trains on March 22.

Jobless porters

He said the PR administration had sent to the federal government the names of 1,670 jobless porters due to the closure of train services to be enlisted in the federal government’s social safety and poverty alleviation “Ehsaas” programme.

The minister claimed that due to the suspension of operations (except for freight train operations), the PR was incurring a weekly loss of Rs1.2 billion.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020