LAHORE: Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad on Saturday said that negligence of the coaster driver was the cause of the train accident near Farooqabad in which about 20 people expired on Friday according to the investigations.

Addressing a press conference at PR headquarters here on Saturday, he said that the coaster driver tried to cross the railway track from an unmanned level crossing avoiding a gate crossing which was closed due to the train arrival.

The minister said that after the project of Mainline-1 (ML-1) the track would be more protected, adding that the file work on the ML-1 project was speedily in progress and it would be started soon.

He thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa for their special interest in the ML-1 project.

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Sheikh Rasheed said that the current year would be the year of railways’ complete revival, adding that no worker would be sacked. “We will provide employment to more than one lac people in the railways soon,” he expressed his determination.

He said that the railways was operating trains with 60 per cent occupancy and bearing loss but it was providing facility to the masses across the country.

The minister alleged that the previous rulers looted the railways and took kickbacks in different purchases, adding that the railway was sending corruption cases of the previous regimes to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

To a question, he said that all concessions to the elderly people in the trains would remain intact and they could enjoy these concession in all trains.

The minister said that fare of the trains would not be increased, adding that he had rejected such suggestion already and burden of fuel prices would not be shifted to the passengers.