MIRPURKHAS, Aug 14: The Railway Workers Union Chairman Manzoor Razi said on Thursday that the Pakistan Railways was suffering a loss of Rs5 million daily for failing to resume services of seven express trains, which were stopped after they were damaged in the wake of Dec 27-violence.

Talking to reporters, the labour leader called upon the prime minister to avert the loss by helping the department in rehabilitating damaged system and resuming the trains’ services.

He said that 23 railway engines, 54 railway stations, 154 passenger coaches, signal system, electric system, microwave system and telecommunication and tracks were set ablaze during riots in the wake of assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Eight months had passed since the countrywide damages to property in the violence but the department had still not been able to resume trains’ services, much to the inconvenience of people, he remarked.

He said that the caretaker government had put the loss at Rs13 billion. The department had not paid serious attention to resume services of Mehran, Nishtar, Faisalabad, Bhambhore, Sir Syed and Sindh Express on whose account it had run into huge losses, he said.

He said that the track between Rohri and Karachi was in a shambles hence the express trains took 12 hours to cover the six-hour journey. The government should resume 12 trains’ services between Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad, he demanded.