LAHORE, May 17: The Lahore division authorities of the Pakistan Railways found on Thursday that both the Business and Shalimar expresses, being run by private parties, were carrying more than permissible cargo in their luggage vans.

However, representatives of both the private parties said they were following the provision of the agreements signed with the Pakistan Railways but some officials were subjecting them to victimisation for their `ulterior motives.’

The luggage van of Shalimar Express was sealed when the staff of the company preferred to move away instead of getting the cargo weighed according to rules while of the 7,120 kilogramme excessive cargo loaded in the luggage van of Business Express at Karachi, some 750 kg was offloaded at Khanewal, said Divisional Transportation Officer Tariq Lateef who led the team that conducted the surprise raid at Lahore station.

“Under the agreements, both the parties cannot load more than 10,000 kilo cargo in a luggage van. Overloading is not only a breach of the agreement but it also puts passenger safety at risk because it can cause major accidents.

“The management of Shalimar Express violated the agreement on two counts. They not only loaded excess cargo in the luggage van but also booked commercial cargo in the brake van, having a permissible capacity of 4,200 kilo, given to them without any charges to accommodate hand-carry luggage of the passengers free of cost.

“Some 8,300 kilo excess cargo was found in the luggage van of Shalimar Express. Of the 7,000 kilo commercial cargo loaded in its brake van, 4,000 kilo was offloaded at Bahawalpur and Multan. The staff left the place when asked to get the luggage checked and returned only after asked to pay demurrage charges.

“Overloading is not only a breach of the agreement but it also puts passenger safety at risk because it can cause major accidents,” said the DTO.

The management of M/s Air Rail Services that operates Shalimar Express said that under the agreement they were allowed to carry 14,200 kilo cargo in the luggage van. “We did not overload the van. Our staff left the place because of the unruly behaviour of the railway team, especially the DTO. They all misbehaved with our employees when found that the cargo weighed 13,200 kilogramme,” said M/s Air Rail Services Director Rana Sakhawat.

A spokesperson for M/s Four Brothers International which has been operating Business Express, said that railway authorities carried out routine checking of the luggage van and imposed fine for the negligible extra cargo.