With the assistance of the National Logistics Cell, Pakistan Railways will complete reconstruction and rehabilitation work on the strategic Sibi-Harnai railway track by the end of January 2023. (NLC).
“The railway track was made dysfunctional after a series of bomb blasts damaged as many as 22 steel bridges in the highly rugged and inaccessible area,” Railways Ministry sources told the media.
They stated that the track was severely damaged in 2006 and that approximately 95 percent of the project’s reconstruction work had been completed and that the rest of the work would be completed soon.
According to sources, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique was also interested in the projects and directed concerned officials to complete them as soon as possible.
They claimed that a lack of proper maintenance over a long period of time had rendered ten railway stations inoperable.
In March 2016, PR sources said that a contract for the rehabilitation and restoration of the Sibbi-Harnai railway track, as well as the upgrading of railway stations, had been given to the NLC because no other construction firm had agreed to take on the project due to the current security situation and the enormity of the task.?
They further stated that during the initial survey of the track, it was discovered that 22 steel bridges of various sizes were completely destroyed and needed to be replaced.
Moreover, they stated that massive river protection work would be undertaken to save the infrastructure. The volume of work, lack of road access, and scarcity of resources made the project highly challenging.
NLC officers, engineers, and construction workers faced severe weather conditions and a harsh security environment while undertaking the project with sincerity of purpose and utmost sense of duty, and subsequently completed 95% of the rehabilitation works in record time, sources added.
The main task was to construct steel bridges. The steel bridges were constructed in Karachi and transported to the project site after being carefully assembled by NLC engineers in a suitable manner, they added.