Railways Ministry intends to write provincial govts to hand over its land

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Railways is planning to write a letter to the provincial governments urging them to hand over its commercial, residential, and agricultural land which would help the Ministry to boost revenue for the department. “Pakistan Railways’ major portion of around 9,986 acres of land worth billion of rupees were found under illegal occupation of private, individual and different government departments across the country,” an official told APP.

The official said that as many as 3,287 acres were occupied in Punjab, 832 acres under encroachment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5,180 acres in Sindh, and 687 acres of land were occupied in Balochistan. However, the official said Pakistan Railways had retrieved as many as 955 acres of its land worth Rs 19,603 million during various anti-encroachment operations across the country in the last five years.

“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 said.

He said about 3,287 acres in Punjab, 832 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5,180 acres in Sindh, and 687 acres of land in Balochistan encroached.

The official said Pakistan Railways 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 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 encroached land, occupied by the individuals and under illegal occupation by various government departments. The official said Pakistan Railways owned 167,690 acres of land across the country, of which 90,326-acre was in Punjab, 39,428-acre in Sindh, 28,228-acre in Balochistan, and 9,708-acre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (APP)