MULTAN, Nov 1: The Lahore High Court’s Multan Bench has directed the Pakistan Railways general manager to device a policy for the restoration of the Electric Traction System.

Taimur Shahid Ansari, a resident of Jalilabad, lodged a petition with the Lahore High Court’s Multan Bench against the Pakistan Railways top officials. He sought the officials be directed to protect the railways assets and restore the Electric Traction System worth billions.

He said the incidents of cable theft were on the rise, creating financial problems for the organisation. He said the recent years had seen cable theft on Lahore-Khanewal section.

He said the PR had introduced the most economical ETS in 1971 and purchased 29 electric locomotives built by the British Electric Traction Group, a consortium of several well-known companies including Metro Cammel and English Electric, and operated these on the 286-kilometre Khanewal-Lahore section at a cost of Rs142 million. This system remained functional till 2007.

“The electric locos were introduced in order to modernise the system and save scarce foreign exchange required for import of fuel for diesel locomotives. The total cost of this ETS set-up including poles on the entire section was Rs30 billion. With no electricity in cables and no electric locomotives on the railway line on the Khanewal-Lahore section, thieves have stolen thousands of meters of overhead electric traction cable (OETC) worth millions,” he said.

He said a mafia within the system had succeeded in disrupting train operations. He said almost 75 per cent of the conductor had been stolen since the inception of this project and now the practice of cutting poles by the mafia was going on.

He said the mafia was trying to eliminate the ETS despite protests of the officials concerned. The Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the issue and told the railways authorities to explain as to why they wanted to abandon the electric system.He said the railways authorities submitted in writing that they would not eliminate this economical system but later grounded all electric locomotives in Lahore. All locomotives could be repaired but those at the helm of affairs disposed these of in haste.

He said former state minister for railways Ishaq Khakwani had approved purchase of 25 electric and 75 diesel locomotives from China five years ago but the “hidden hands” only allowed 75 diesel engines, cancelling the deal for 25 electric locomotives.

He requested the court to issue an order to restore the electric rail system immediately.