SUKKUR: Commuters frequently travelling by Sukkur Express ever since its launch almost 22 years ago are fast losing their love with the service due to its disturbed schedule.

A constant decline in the revenues it has been generating has created fear of its closure any time.

Members of local business community and trade organisations who had been among the thousands of commuters keenly travelling by the train, consider the service as highly benefitting for their businesses.

They say that over the last two decades, Sukkur Express had proved itself to be not only a great public transport service for commuters belonging to the upper Sindh region, but also for the people living in the rest of the country who need to access Sukkur, Rohri, Pannu Aqil, Jacobabad, Ghotki, Shikarpur and other cities and towns to keep meeting their relatives or maintain business and commercial relations with their associates.

“Rail and road networks physically connect ‘one population with the other’and not just one person with the other, and this helps populations to grow together in terms of business, trade and social relationships,” said Haji Javed Memon, Aamir Farooqi, Rizwan Memon, Anwar Kamal Baloch other prominent trade and business community leaders while speaking to Dawn.

They recalled that one had to struggle hard to get a seat in the train until all was well in terms of its scheduled arrival and departure.

“It is not only a matter of advantage to individuals … if business, trade and commercial activities in cities and towns flourish, this ultimately contribute heavily to the progress and prosperity of a province and the country,” they argued.

Discussing the issues people are facing with regard to the train service, they said poor service offered by the railways authorities in keeping passengers informed about its certain arrival at Sukkur was another reason behind its declining popularity.

Over the last few months, frequent travellers and the local business community have been complaining to Sukkur officials of the Pakistan Railways about the train’s chronic issue of late arrival at Sukkur from Karachi.

They pointed out that the train’s actual arrival time at Sukkur is 7:30am, and noted with concern that it would very often arrive at around 12noon or even later. Despite repeated complaints, the PR officials seemed not interested in taking corrective measures, they regretted.

May other passengers this reporter spoke to at the Sukkur station, said they shared the same concerns because Sukkur Express was now coming four to five hours late as a daily routine. They said they had now started preferring bus services when time really mattered.

The local business community and other travellers appeared unsure about any urgent action to be taken to make the officials concern resolve the issue. They said the officials responsible for the delays must be held accountable before this profitable train service could become a liability and had to be closed.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2024