ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is seriously considering to extend Railways operations to Afghanistan’s northern city Mazar-e-Sharif in a bid to connect to Central Asian Republics (CARs).
This was stated by Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Railways meeting, here on Monday, which was held under the chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Qasim.
While briefing the panel on the agenda item of the PSDP plan 2022-23 and future strategies of Pakistan Railways, the minister said that at present, a senior delegation of the government of Uzbekistan is visiting Pakistan to discuss extending the Railway link to the central Asian country.
He added that the ministry is to brief the prime minister on the subject today (Tuesday) and will deliberate all the issues with the prime minister.
The minister said that he along with the senior officials of the Pakistan Railways will soon visit Uzbekistan as the country desperately wanted to access Pakistani ports. The minister added that feasibility study to build Torkham-Mazar-e-Sharif railways track will cost Rs50 billion. He further said that Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey rail link is making significant success despite the fact, the track on Pakistani side is too dated.
The minister said that hundreds of thousands of acres of land owned by the Pakistan Railway is encroached by various people across the country and the ministry is making all out efforts to get it vacated but the encroachers are getting stay orders from the courts, which is the greatest hurdle in commercialising the railway lands.
He said that the Railways Ministry was unable to lease out thousands of acres of land owing to the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan decisions, adding that the SC should help the government of Pakistan instead of helping the encroachers. He said that the parliament is supreme having the authority to legislate, while the SC has no such authority, adding that the government was all set to bring a legislation on to commercialise the railways’ property.
Swati said that it is sad that the railway property had not been utilised for the maximum benefit of the country and that he and his team would ensure that this practice is curbed. He appealed to the judiciary to strengthen federal agencies, so that these could benefit the nation.
He stressed the need for a regulatory body that would amplify and streamline accountability of organisational assets including 186,000 acres of land. He added that commercialisation of the railways was a priority and the land would be leased for commercial projects; residence and agriculture that will be a continuous source of income.
He stated that in keeping with the performance of the Pakistan Railways in the past six months; that generated Rs2 billion; it is hoped that Rs4 billion will be generated within a year. Talking about the ML-1 project, the minister said that so far, the ministry has failed to start it owing to financial constraints. He said that the ministry is going to start outsourcing all the commercial activities and is also all set to start e-procurement process.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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