LAHORE: Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati plans to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday with a request to sanction Rs 60 billion to replace the Khanpur-Sukkur section track

“I have already brief him on the (track) situation and will meet him along with Planning Minister Asad Umar to get approval for the funding,” swati told Dawn on Thursday.

“Since it is a critical section, we will request our Chinese counterparts to at least allow us construct this first under the ML-1, a mega 6.8 billion dollar project to be constructed under CPEC,” he explained.

To a question, he said the opening of a welded rail joint, breaking of couplings, slight expansion in width of the track and mechanical issues in a passenger coach were among the possible reasons behind the June 7 horrible trains accident that left a number of passengers dead and injured.

“According to initial probe, a piece of welded rail has been found on the track that indicates that it broke due to massive load of the Millat Express, leading to a possible derailment of the coaches. Coach No-10 of Millat Express seemed not fit for travel when the train left Karachi but no one took notice,” he explained while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

“That is why we have initially suspended some officials for negligence allegedly on their part but we cannot declare them guilty till findings of the detail probe report,”

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2021