ISLAMABAD, May 09 (INP): The Pakistan Railways is planning to reconstruct 11 and repair another 55 bridges across the country to ensure smooth operation of the trains and safety of the passengers. An official in the Ministry of Railways said on Thursday that the department would reconstruct three bridges in Sukkur, six in Multan, two in Lahore Division. Regarding the repair of bridges in different divisions, he said Pakistan Railways has planned to repair 34 bridges in Karachi, 11 in Sukkur, two in Multan, five in Rawalpindi, two in Peshawar and one in Quetta. The officials said around 86 percent of bridges are more than 100 years old but all of them were safe for train operation due to regular maintenance, rehabilitation and strengthening of these bridges. He said there are 13,959 major and minor bridges over the system and the design life of which varies for different years. The standard operating procedure calls for inspection of bridges in accordance with the different schedules like monthly, quarterly, biannually and annually, he added. To a question, the official said average 77.10 percent of tracks are over-aged and minor repair are carried out by the department in routine to ensure safety of the passengers. However, he said 730 kilometer track has been rehabilitated or partially rehabilitated through complete track, sleeper and rail renewals under various Public Sector Development Programme projects. INP/SB/AK