LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) suffered four train derailments on the main as well as branch lines that caused disruption of its operation that is already affected because of the countrywide rains and technical issues.

The PR operation was disturbed on August 20 after the Lahore-bound Shalimar Express hit the Millat Express at Jahanian railway station,near Khanewal. It caused delay in departure of both express trains and disturbed schedule of various others, irritating the passengers.

According to reports, some coaches of both trains got entangled with each other because of the collision that were later detached by the staff concerned.

However, the PR authorities claimed to have resolved the issue“within a short span of time” by dispatching both the trains to their destinations.

On August 22 (Saturday), a passenger coach of Millat Express had derailed near Kala Pul, Karachi Cantt Station. However, the staff put the derailed coach back on track and dispatched it to its destination.

On Sunday (August 23), two spare coaches derailed in the yard area of Rawalpindi station. As per PR officials, the coaches derailed while being rolled for attachment with some trains originating from the Rawalpindi station. However, according to Rawalpindi division chief Syed Munawar Shah, the incident didn’t cause any disruption in train operations.

“It happened in the yard. And it didn’t disrupt our routine operations,” he told Dawn.

Similarly, the same day, a goods train derailed near Sangla Hill station on a branch line within the jurisdiction of PR’s Lahore division.

E-AUCTION: E-Auction system for allocation of attractive registration numbers to vehicles will go operational in the wee hours of Monday (today), according to a spokesman. He said those interested in getting attractive numbers could register themselves online.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2020