Kot Addu Junction

The Sind Sagar branch of the North-Western Railway was built in 1886. It crossed the Chenab at Sher Shah and turned north along the east bank of the Indus, through Muzaffargarh, Budh, Mahmudkot, Gurmani, Sinawan, Kot Addu, Daira Din Panah and Ihsanpur. In 1908 the district gazetteer called Kot Addu “now an important railway station”, 33 miles from Muzaffargarh — a town then known for making bows and arrows. The junction at the time was Mahmudkot, with a branch west to Ghazi Ghat.

A bridge across the barrage

The change came in the 1960s. A line from Kot Addu across the Indus to Dera Ghazi Khan was sanctioned in 1964 at Rs 4.17 crore, and work began that December with its construction headquarters at Kot Addu. The railway bridge over Taunsa Barrage is 4,336 feet between abutments, on 66 riveted plate-girder spans made by Butterley & Co in Britain — which arrived by rail at Kot Addu station. The first material train crossed on 6 March 1968; the line opened to goods on 8 July 1968 and to passengers on 23 March 1969.

Pakistan Railways records that the line on to Kashmore followed between 1969 and 1973, “providing an alternate route from Karachi to up country”. Kot Addu became the point where the Sher Shah branch from Multan meets that route — today's Kotri–Attock line, ML-2. Its station code is ADK.

Trains, oil, and the flood

The 2019 district gazetteer counted two passenger trains a day on the Multan–Kundian line through Kot Addu, the Mehr Express and the Thal Express, down from a peak of six, alongside about three goods trains and six oil trains. The oil comes from the next junction south, Mehmood Kot, where PARCO's refinery and the oil companies' terminals load crude and refined oil every day. The Khushhal Khan Khattak Express, Karachi to Peshawar by way of Kot Addu, was restored in April 2025 — some 1,512 km in about 34 hours, though sources differ on whether it runs daily.

The line has been tested by the river. In the flood of August 2010, traffic on the Multan–Rawalpindi section stopped; about 1.5 km of track between Kot Addu and Taunsa Barrage stations was destroyed by water from the breached embankment, and about 2.5 km more between Budh and Mehmood Kot.