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MIANWALI The century-old Kalabagh railway bridge over river Indus has been closed to traffic owing to its dilapidated condition and frequent fatal accidents occurring there.
The bridge was actually constructed to connect Tank and Bannu towns of the NWFP to Punjab through a narrow-gauge rail track. The rail service was closed over a decade back and the bridge was being used for vehicular traffic.
However, lack of maintenance had turned the bridge into a virtual death trap for those who had no other means to cross the river to reach Mari-Indus or Iskandarabad. The daily commuters crossing the bridge mostly included residents of Kalabagh town employed in factories at Iskandarabad, and the students who had to reach their schools and colleges across the Indus.
Before the closure, these daily commuters had to travel seven or eight kilometers to reach their respective destinations across the Indus, but now they would have to cover about 20 kilometers by crossing the river using Jinnah Barrage bridge.
The dilapidated bridge had been causing frequent accidents wherein people would fall in the Indus because of the broken wooden sleepers. According to reports, four people fell from the bridge and lost their lives during the last three months apart from other accidents.
Local politicians pledge repairs of the bridge during their election campaigns but nothing concrete has so far been done in this regard. Even a promise made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his recent visit to the area could not materialise. District Council member Haji Sikandar told this scribe that even the frequent fatal accidents happening on the bridge had failed to move the high-ups.
Another reason for the official neglect regarding the bridge is that neither the Pakistan Railway nor the provincial highways department takes full responsibility for its repairs.
