2023-08-09 11:36:00
Islamabad
Fatal train crash in Pakistan: six employees suspended
Six railway workers, including track maintenance staff, have been suspended following a train derailment in southern Pakistan on Sunday killed 34 people.
UpdatedAugust 9, 2023, 1:36 PM
More than 1,000 people were on board the Hazara Express when it derailed on Sunday.
REUTERS
“We have not forgiven the negligence. We have suspended six people,” Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said at a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday. He spoke following Sunday train derailment in southern Pakistan, which killed 34 people. More than 1,000 people were on board the Hazara Express when the carriages rolled off their tracks near Sahara station, not far from the town of Nawabshah in the southern province of Sindh. “The final report is still awaited, but there was no sabotage,” he added, indicating that six railway workers, including track maintenance staff, have been suspended. .
Two contributing factors
On Tuesday, the minister told the National Assembly that two factors contributed to the accident. Two locked wheels, located behind the locomotive, were greased before the train departed instead of the car being replaced. The other factor was a defect in the track’s top plate which exacerbated the problem.
Decrepit railway network
Rail accidents and derailments are frequent on Pakistan’s dilapidated network, which has nearly 7,500 kilometers of track and carries more than 80 million passengers a year. This network, which was the pride of the British during the colonial era, still includes tracks, junctions and bridges dating back more than 150 years, but its modernization is underway as part of the gigantic China-Pakistan economic corridor.
(AFP)
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