Railways accidents causes and priorities of the state ?

The terrible

train

accident

near Nawabshah that killed over 30

passengers

of the Hazara Express and left dozens injured on Sunday was a tragedy waiting to happen. There is always an air of resignation when a

train

accident

occurs in Pakistan. Each incident is followed by routine announcements of an inquiry and, in the case of major accidents, cash compensation for families who have lost their loved ones or

passengers

who sustained injuries. The death toll is reduced to mere numbers and the inquiry is consigned to the

railway

junkyard.

Train

derailments happen frequently on Pakistan’s poorly maintained

railway

lines, especially on the stretch between Khanpur and Karachi. More than 250 people have died and several hundred wounded in major

train

derailments, collisions and fires in the

last

10 years. It is not only the

train

tracks that are covered in blood; those who have wilfully neglected the railways

also

have blood on their hands. One can hardly recall the government making any inquiry public or punishing those responsible for these tragedies. The latest tragedy is yet another grim reminder of the multiple challenges the government faces in even maintaining and repairing the country’s dilapidated

railway

infrastructure let alone modernising it and expanding rail services. Shortly after the

accident

,

railway

and aviation minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said the possibility of sabotage or a mechanical fault could not be ruled out. The “root cause” of the

accident

would have to be investigated, he added. Some

railway

officials blamed the derailment of the Rawalpindi-bound Hazara Express on the breakage of the

railway

line and hot axle issue, which jammed movement. Yesterday, the minister termed the lack of resources as the “real cause” of the tragedy. In fact,

that is

the single most important reason for the current state of the

railway

infrastructure between Peshawar and Karachi.

For example

, the

railway

department had requested Rs30bn in 2021 for the rehabilitation of the 470 km-long track between Khanpur and Kotri where the most fatal accidents have occurred in recent years.

However

, both the PTI and PDM governments delayed approval, citing it as “unnecessary”

due to

the planned $9bn ML-1 project under the CPEC initiative. That shows the government does not really care about the life of the rail

passengers

because the overwhelming majority comes from the lower-income groups of the population. No wonder whenever a

railway

minister talks about turning railways around, they are concerned about the profitability of its operations rather than the safety of the

passengers

. The

railway

department cannot be turned into a profitable entity without investment in its infrastructure to ensure safe travel for its users. The ML-1 project is crucial to modernising the

railway

system. But the safety of the

passengers

is paramount, with or without it.