Chaman Dry Port: Ministry, depts directed to amicably resolve land dispute

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Railways and other concerned departments to immediately and amicably resolve completion of Chaman Dry Port for which loans have been acquired from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

These directions were passed by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways held here under the chairmanship of Muhammad Mueen Wattoo to discuss the matters related to Chaman Dry Port, and approval of the minutes of its meeting held on 4th and 5th November, 2020.

The committee was briefed by the officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Railways and the National Logistic Cell (NLC) on the Chaman Dry Port.

The FBR officials said that the project was conceived by the FBR under the loan of the ADB.

The Railways officials informed the meeting that the said project was being built on the land of the Pakistan Railways, and the FBR hired services of the NLC as the contractor to execute the project.

The chief executive of Railways also briefed the committee that the FBR, while conceiving the project, failed to take the Ministry of Railways on board and that was why the completion of the project was delayed since 2015.

The NLC and the FBR officials, acknowledging the flaws, said that the amount of the loan would lapse, if not utilised in due course of time and the FBR had to pay the penalty, and seeking the no objection certificate from the Ministry of Railways for continuity of the project.

The Railways Ministry officials said that the project is planned at the Railways property but the FBR and the NLC were not giving the right of way to the Ministry of Railways, which is against global standard and norms.

During the meeting, the FBR officials proposed that the FBR, the NLC and the Ministry of Railways should work together after deciding the mode of implementation of the project and explore the funding option from the donors.

After hearing the point of view of all the stakeholders, the panel jointly directed the FBR to convene a special meeting within seven days with relevant stakeholders and other concerned quarters including the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Ministry of Interior, and the NLC to bring a mutually-agreed workable plan before the panel.

The panel further directed the stakeholders to present the final plan, decisions and report to the committee with two weeks for the implementation of the said decision.

The committee directed the FBR to give written assurance of the endurance of the above matter at the earliest.

Administrator Municipal Corporation, Chaman was directed to coordinate with the Railways under the decision of the court, and resolve the dispute mutually at the earliest.

As regard the implementation status of the previous recommendations of the committee, the members raised the objection that the Ministry of Railways delayed in the process of implementation of the recommendations of the committee.

Secretary Ministry of Railways and the chief executive officer (CEO), Railways informed that before the implementation of the recommendation of the committee, a lengthy process have to be adopted to avoid any future legal issues.

However, that almost all the recommendations of the committee are implemented and placed before the panel.

The Committee also took the matter of outstanding bills/receivable amount by the Railways Division, Quetta from the different department of provincial government of Baluchistan and advised them to either vacate the land of Railways or indulge with agreement for paying the rent to Railways.

The panel said that if the provincial government departments were failing in paying the rent to the Railways they have to vacate the railways land at the earliest.

Similarly, private oil companies such as Shell, Caltex, and the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) were also directed to pay the rent to the railways for using their land or vacate the land at the earliest.

The agenda item pended due to non-availability of concerned officers of the Government of Balochistan in spite of the notice issued to them.

The Committee decided to call the chief secretary, Balochistan on all the issues conveyed through the notice of today's meeting.

The Committee also directed the Railways Division Quetta to bring the entire shopkeepers at Railways Station Hurnai in the tax net within one month.

All the goods and freight trains must be operated and also the passenger trains for the facilitation of the local people.

The Committee also directed that renovation and reconstruction of the railways station on the main line may be carried out as per availability of funds.

Railways has already launched the privatization of passenger trains, and the Committee has the view that Railways should watch them carefully for their receivable well in time from the contractors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020