PESHAWAR, Aug 18: About 20 containers loaded with export items from Peshawar are stuck in Hyderabad for the last 15 days because of damage done to railways bridge No.85 at Ran Pathani, causing considerable financial losses to exporters.
According to Peshawar's business circles, some 20 containers of various sizes loaded with export items, including carpets, handicrafts, honey, etc., are stuck in Hyderabad since July 30 after flash floods swept away railways’ over 100-year-old bridge at Ran Pathani, some 78km from Karachi.
The number of such containers stranded on way to sea port, said a local exporter, was expected to increase during the next couple of days when rail wagons carrying more export goods from Peshawar to Karachi would start reaching Hyderabad.
"We have already missed two ships during the last 10 days, as our consignments are stuck in Hyderabad for the last two weeks," said Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, member advisory committee of Pakistan Railways and a customs clearance agent.
One official estimated that export goods worth hundreds of millions of rupees were stranded, delaying the execution of business deals that would fetch millions of dollars foreign exchange for the country. Some of the containers were dispatched from Peshawar for the United States, Germany, the Middle East, France and a couple of other European destinations.
Representatives of local exporters, he added, met with the divisional superintendent, Pakistan Railways, Peshawar, Shafiqullah on Tuesday to apprise him of complications being experienced by NWFP exporters due to disruption of the rail traffic.
"Exporters have paid hundreds of thousands of rupees to railways for transporting our goods to Karachi but the government's subsidiary has not shown any sense of responsibility to ensure speedy delivery of stranded goods through alternate means of transportation," said Arshad Khan, a local businessman.
Mr Shafiqullah was not available when contacted to know the arrangements made by his organisation for transporting the stranded consignments.
Other than delays in sending the goods to foreign clients, exporters were constrained to pay $15 to $25 a day as rent for every container stuck near Ran Pathani bridge, said a businessman.
"They (railways) should make arrangements to transport our containers to the sea port to help us deliver goods to our clients in time," said Mr Sarhadi, adding that the exporters had also put forth a proposal to the railways authorities for arranging NLC trucks for transporting stranded goods' containers to sea port from Hyderabad.
However, Peshawar-based railways authorities when contacted said the matter pertained to the Lahore office and a decision to this effect of arranging NLC trucks could only be taken by the Lahore authorities.
"We have assured the exporters that an alternative track would soon become operational that would help normalise the situation," said a railways official.
Refusing to accept the railways authorities' claim vis-à-vis restoration of the rail traffic in next couple of days, Mr Sarhadi said it might take eight to 10 days before the stranded containers loaded on rail wagons could move beyond Hyderabad.