BADIN, May 10 The reactivated Badin-Hyderabad railway section is in very poor condition and is likely to be closed down anytime again because of a number of serious problems it is faced with.

The train service resumed after restoration of the track at a cost of Rs150 million and was formally inaugurated by National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza in December 2008.

According to sources, the newly restored train service between Hyderabad and Badin is incurring huge losses on railway authorities and they are considering closing it down.

People who travel between the two cities are very concerned about the dismal state of affairs. Talking to this correspondent, they were of the view that if the service was stopped once again it would be because of the 'ill intention and criminal negligence' of railway authorities.

A Badin-based trader, Mohammad Usman, said the service was very important for those who had trade links with Hyderabad. He condemned what he termed 'disdainful attitude' of railway authorities towards of the people of Badin.

The train which seldom reaches its destination on time lacks basic facilities. According to some of its passengers there was no concept of maintaining cleanliness in the train and all bogies gave a very 'filthy look'. Because of mismanagement, a large number of people travel without tickets.

When the attention of a railway official was drawn towards the poor state of affairs of the service, he said “Only Allah is running the railway.”

The district government of Badin in order to help Pakistan Railway deputed DDO (Revenue) Asif Tufail to conduct an assessment for evaluating the quality of service on the route.

According to Dr Tufail, on an average 325 people travelled on the six bogies of the train on one way journey and 83 of them without tickets.

He said in his report that the losses to Pakistan Railways had rendered the “route as non-viable” which in fact had the potential to be a profitable one. He observed the locomotive was not being switched off during night time, resulting in wasting of fuel.

He said the cause of lack of interest of people in the train service was because of its always reaching delay to its destinations. Badin's DCO Agha Wasif Abbas has sent some suggestions to the higher authorities of Pakistan Railways, asking them to look into the affairs of the train service before taking a decision for closing down the service.