DNA

FAISALABAD, SEPT 14 – Faisalabad ,Pakistan Railways is backbone of Pakistan’s economy, providing affordable, high-speed and comfortable transportation for large-scale in country along with a dark side. Railway crossing without gate is a nightmare, taking lives of innocent daily.

This critical issue of Pakistan is a complete administrative negligence.  Accidents are happening regularly due to the absence of gates or gatemen at railway crossings. General traffic crosses without any restriction while train is on the move.

These outdated crossing systems are taking lives of innocents, especially children and elderly. Whenever there is an accident, there is a noise for a while and then life starts moving in the same way. The punishment of those responsible is determined and then, as is customary, silence prevails, but this silence leads to further accidents. The paving of these old gates and equipping them with modern facilities has become a matter of urgency across the country but so far no practical steps are being taken at the governmental and administrative level.

According to a report, there are currently 2,400 old railway gates across the country, posing a serious threat to the lives of citizens. At least 22 people, including 21 from Peshawar’s Sikh community, were killed in a collision between a passenger train and a bus near Sheikhupura district a few months ago due to a railway crossing without a gate. At present, there are seven operational divisions of railways in the country where trains run 24 hours a day. There is a total of 3783 Level of Crossings across the country out of which 2442 are without gates ,There are about 92 railway gates in Faisalabad where there are no Gates man

According to Mr. Tabassum, Everyone is in the rush to reach home, they cross the train track in a hurry and are hit by trains every day, as a result of which most of the people lose their lives. According to the report, currently only 20% of the traffic signals are working in the entire railway crossings throughout the country. Another reason for the accident is lack of communication between the gateman and the train driver. The irresponsible attitude of the gatemen is also a major reason. The

Faisalabad Station Superintendent Muhammad Ashraf said that accidents would be avoided if traffic signals at the railway crossings are working properly. If the gateman and the train driver keep in touch with each other during the movement of vehicles accidents will not happen. He said if the gateman could not contact the train driver due to some technical glitch, he should immediately hoist a red flag to stop the train.