KARACHI, Oct 28: During the last ten months at least 60 people, both men and women, have been killed after being hit by trains while railway tracks are still without fences.

It seems that the Federal Railway Ministry’s project to fence the tracks in the city limits has become another victim of red-tapism.

The breakdown of fatalities during the period from Jan 2007 to Oct 2007 is: Drigh (30); Landhi (23); Cantonment (six) and City Station (one), whereas the figure stood at forty-eight in 2006 and sixty-five in the year 2005.

The areas around the Drigh Railway Station are the worst-hit areas as hundreds of thousands cross the fenceless rail tracks on a daily basis and during the last eight years around 297 people have been killed by trains while crossing the tracks.

According to railway police officials, crossing rail track in the absence of railway crossings or overhead bridges is a crime. Under Rule-122 of the Pakistan Railway Act, moving on train track from areas without railway crossing or overhead bridge is a crime. The violators are considered “trespassers”, and as per the law, any person found in violation of this rule may be fined Rs2,000 or serve six-month imprisonment or face both.

When, asked about the FIRs lodged against such law-breakers, the railway police officials at all the four police stations said that people’s protests prevented them from taking any action.

They were of the view that the only way to stop this repeated violation was to fence the track as announced by Federal Railways Minister Shiekh Rashid Ahmed.

On the other hand, a number of people alleged that the officials of the railway police neither patrolled their respective areas nor dissuade citizens from risking their lives by crossing these fenceless rail tracks.

It would be worth recalling that earlier this year Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had announced to erect boundary walls or fence the rail track from Landhi to Cantonment stations. Despite a passage of around 10 months no progress has been made in this connection.

According to PR sources, a feasibility report regarding the fencing project was sent to the PR headquarters, Lahore, months back for final approval. The report had suggested a cost of Rs18million in this regard.

The divisional superintendent of Karachi, Mir Mohammad Khaskheli, said that the main hurdle in initiating fencing work was widespread illegal encroachments. He said that hundreds of thousands of people were living along both sides of the track. Although they had been repeatedly served vacation notices by the department, but they were still not complying with the orders, he said.

However, he said that the work on the project was likely to begin next year.

According to PR rules, 100 feet open space on either sides of the track is a must to ensure secure movement of trains as well as to avoid losses of life of people or animals, etc. However, in Karachi city limits encroachers have occupied this mandatory space. In some densely populated areas this space has even shrunk to five feet, making it difficult to initiate the project.—PPI