Railway authorities on Wednesday declared the track between Lahore, Quetta and Karachi ‘unfit for use’ after assessing the damage to the track and signal system after the floods.
The decision to run trains between the three cities has been postponed once again.
After that the process of online booking and reservation of train tickets was stopped while a notification was also issued to all commercial officers to stop booking of all seven divisions.
According to officials, passenger and freight trains will be run only after the railway tracks and bridges are declared fit.
Due to the devastating floods across the country, train operations have been completely suspended for almost a month.
Inspection of railway tracks, signal system and bridges is currently underway.
Additional General Manager Railway Infrastructure Arshad Salam Khattak has said that it will be possible to resume operations only after the inspection team declares the situation satisfactory.
15 billion rupees loss to railways
Due to continuous rains and floods in the country, the railway infrastructure has been damaged to the tune of 15 billion rupees. The repair of damaged bridges and tracks is estimated at around Rs 8 billion, while ticket refunds, diesel, administrative issues and suspension of train operations cost the department Rs 3.5 billion.
A few days ago, Pakistan Railways suspended the operation of five major express trains on Main Line-I (ML-I) until the railway track is restored.
Officials said that the main line of Pakistan Railways between Tando Masti Khan and Gumbat and Mehrabpur and Lakhru sections is under flood water. Similarly, the track got submerged in different places of Balochistan.
