Railways to recoup encroached land

Official says ministry has retrieved 955 acres in the last five years

ISLAMABAD:

A Pakistan Railways (PR) official disclosed that a major portion of around 9,986 acres of land, worth billions of rupees, was found under illegal occupation of individuals and different government departments across the country.

“Around 3,287 acres were occupied in Punjab, 832 acres under encroachment in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, 5,180 acres in Sindh and 687 acres in Balochistan,” he told APP.

However, he claimed that Pakistan Railways had retrieved as much as 955 acres of its land during various anti-encroachment operations across the country in the last five years.

He disclosed that about 3,287 acres in Punjab, 832 acres in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 5,180 acres in Sindh and 687 acres of land in Balochistan was encroached. “Around 476 acres retrieved in Punjab; 133 acres in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 327 acres in Sindh and only 19 acres in Balochistan had been retrieved by the Pakistan Railways,” he claimed.

The official said that in light of the Supreme Court orders, the anti-encroachment operations for retrieval of encroached railway land were initiated and a joint procedure order was issued to all divisional superintendents.

“The anti-encroachment schedules are prepared on a three months basis and sent to all the officials concerned in line with the joint procedure order,” the official added.

He said PR had also decided to accelerate its ongoing anti-encroachment operation against land grabbers across the country to recoup its land from different individuals, groups and even business organizations that were using it for residential, commercial and agricultural purposes for decades.

“The anti-encroachment operation will be launched with the assistance of railway police and district administrations of the relevant provincial governments,” he added.

He said the government was taking several steps to retrieve encroached land from the land grabbers, including a detailed survey being carried out to identify the culprits.

The official said that PR owned 167,690 acres of land across the country, out of which 90,326 acres of land was in Punjab; 39,428 acres in Sindh; 28,228 acres in Balochistan and 9,708 acres in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.Land encroachment had been a major issue faced by the railways in Pakistan for years. Many companies refrain from investing in the sector due to this issue. Earlier, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) came to invest in Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), but the ministry failed to liberate the required land even from Karachi to make it functional.

With the new developments like procurement of new coaches and an intention to modernize the railways, retrieving land is, by all means, a good sign for the economic situation of the country.