Ongoing anti-encroachment campaign: Railway retrieves 133 acres of land across country

Pakistan Railways (PR) has cleared around 133 acres encroached land across the country during the ongoing anti-encroachment campaign so far. This was stated by a senior official of Railways Ministry while talking to Business Recorder here on Saturday.
PR has retrieved 12.498 acres land of commercial, residential and agricultural in Peshawar division, 2.99 acres in Rawalpindi division, 19,898 acres in Lahore division, 70.21 acres in Multan division, 19.563 acres in Sukkur division, 7.10 acres in Karachi division and 1.6 acres in Quetta division. Sources said that around 4000 acres of Railways' land worth around Rs 75 billion is still under encroachment. Punjab tops the list where 1956 acres of railway land remains under encroachment followed by Sindh with 1,130 acres, Balochistan with 616 acres and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 225 acres.
Officials said 137.002 acres (89.492 acre, individual and 47.510 acres government departments) of Railways land was encroached during the last five years. This includes 11.04 acres in Peshawar that was originally given on lease but after expiry of lease the lessee did not vacate it and got stay order from the court, having an assessed value of Rs 5641.174 million.
Spokesperson of Railways Ministry Ali Nawaz Malik told Business Recorder that anti-encroachment campaign was launched in all seven divisions simultaneously. The department is facing challenges in clearing its land from encroachers in Karachi, said Malik, adding that anti-encroachment drive is in full swing in other parts of the country.
The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the concerned authorities to ensure all encroached railway land is cleared so that Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project may be executed. However, Railways land falling in the KCR project is yet to be cleared due to resistance from the encroachers.
Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar has stated that the 2,000 shop owners affected by the anti-encroachment operation will be provided an alternative place and that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah will allot the land after returning from his visit to China. However, according to officials, those living or having shops/businesses on Railways land in Karachi are not ready to vacate the land due to trust deficit.
Official further told this correspondent that the government has devised a comprehensive policy to prevent further encroachments, if any new encroachment occurs in future, and the relevant officials will be held responsible. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Joint Procedure Order have been issued for strict implementation of this policy.
The PR had carried out a detailed survey in 2011 in the context of a suo motu case to identify the details of encroached land occupied by individuals, the government and defence departments. An area of 5662.667 acres of Railway land was found encroached on the entire Railway system including 3416.102 acres by private persons and another 447.304 acres by various government departments.