Agenda mapping: Lands encroached on railways’ priority list

‘Railways to get Rs39bn in upcoming budget’.

LAHORE:

A meeting of the standing committee on railways was held at the Railway Headquarters on Monday.

The meeting was chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar. Participants discussed matters pertaining to railway land encroachments in the country.

Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said the department had initiated a project in collaboration with the Punjab Urban Unit to computerise railways land records. The minister identified certain areas of priority including the revamp of the legal department, several ongoing targeted operations and to pursue pending cases in courts.

He told the committee about the various steps taken by the department to stop the recurrence of encroachment on railway lands. He suggested that sub-committees should be formed to evolve quick solutions to various issues pertaining to the railways.

The minister said that the Pakistan Railways would get over Rs39 billion in the budget and hoped that it would be able to meet its expenses within the set amount.

The chairman asked the department to hold another meeting after three months to brief it about the expenditures.

Railways Police IG Ibne Hussain said as many as 688 people had been arrested for encroachment on railway land so far.

Locomotives Chief Mechanical Engineer Tariq Khan also briefed the members of the committee on locomotives recently imported from China.     Later after visiting the locomotives shop at Mughalpura, Naveed Qamar said that 14 engines had arrived from China...they would be added to the railway system soon.

He said several Chinese engineers had arrived in Pakistan and several others would visit soon to monitor the functioning of the locomotives and fix minor problems.

Naveed Qamar said a committee had been formed to monitor the working of the railways above party politics.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2014.