The erstwhile British colonialists had left us railways in a very good shape on the eve of partition of the sub continent in 1947. The following two examples will substantiate this point. There is a railway track between Rawalpindi and Manzai located at the doorway of South Waziristan. It crosses Kohat, Bannu, LAKKI and Tank. Had it been extended up to DIK from PEZU onwards also facility of travelling by train could have been made available to the residents of Southern most district of KPK. That track could have been extended to Quetta also from Tanai via Fort Sandiman thus providing another railway route to Balochistan from Rawalpindi. It is pity that owing to negligence of the railway authorities iron bars of this railway track have been uprooted from place to place between Kohat and Manzai by thieves.
The Britishers had like wise laid a railway track from Peshawar Can’t railway station up to Landikotal in the historic Khyber pass in 1925. This 53 kilometres railway track which runs zig zag through a very difficult hill track has to cross 34 tunnels and 50 bridges through a very difficult geographical terrain and is certainly a marvel of railway engineering. If a safari train is run on this track it can attract local and foreign tourists desirous of visiting historic Khyber pass. In the not too distant past the VVIPs like the president and governors used to travel in train inside the country and a special compartment billed as saloon used to be attached
with the train. That kept the railway staff on their toes also. For a long time now what to speak of these VVIPs even the railway ministers have stopped travelling in trains which proves their step motherly treatment with the railways.
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