Pakistan Railways makes progress in probe into Karachi Express accident

SUKKUR: Pakistan Railways has decided to take forward the ongoing investigation into the horrible accident of Karachi Express between Mando Dero and Sanghi railway stations on March 7, ARY News reported on Friday.

The railway officials have decided to collect evidence from the locals after 14 days post-accident of Karachi Express. The locals have been summoned at Rohri Khanpur Junction pertains to the inquiry.

The inquiry will be held at the DS Office Railway on March 25 and 30. The railway officials asked citizens to provide information or evidence regarding the accident which claimed the life of a woman passenger while 30 other passengers got injured after nine bogies of Lahore-bound Karachi Express derailed.

Read: One dead, 30 injured as passenger train derails near Rohri

The information could also be sent to the federal government inspector of railways in Lahore till April 4, according to the officials.

On March 7, a woman passenger had lost her life while 30 other passengers got injured after nine bogies of Lahore-bound Karachi Express derailed near Rohri in the wee hours of Sunday.

The Mechanical Branch of Pakistan Railways had rejected the preliminary report saying the Rohri train accident was due to over-speeding and asserted it was actually due to broken train tracks.

Read: ‘Karachi Express derailed due to dilapidated tracks not speeding’

According to the report, the bogies of the Karachi Express derailed near Rohri owing to the dilapidated condition of the track. During an inspection of the 490-kilometre route of the train, it was revealed that the track fish plate at the 1.5 feet track was found to be broken.

It had revealed that the coupling between coaches 12306 and 12412 was also broken.

The earlier report said the trains have been advised to maintain a speed of 65 kilometers per hour owing to an engineering fault at the spot and blamed the driver saying that the train was over speeding and the driver tried to bring it to 65-kilometer mark which led the train being dragged to 2402 feet, signs of which were also found on the track.