ISLAMABAD: A total of 4,400.68 acres land of Pakistan Railways around the country is under unauthorised occupation. In a written reply to a question to the National Assembly on Friday, Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said 4,400.68 acres of Railways land was illegally occupied in all the provinces as: 381.6 acres in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1,937.68 acres in Punjab, 1,510.12 acres in Sindh, and 571.288 acres land in Balochistan.
He told that a total of 75.43 acres of commercial land was under unauthorised occupation in all the provinces; 12.48 acres of commercial land in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 55.108 acres in Punjab, 7.131 acres in Sindh, and 0.71 acres in Balochistan.
The minister said similarly, a total of 27.576 acres of residential land was occupied illegally including 0.03 acres in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11.43 acres in Punjab, and 0.88 acres land in Balochistan.
He said a total of 202.653 acres agricultural land was unauthorised occupation in the provinces including 15.721 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 172.17 acres in Punjab, and 14.76 acres agricultural land in Sindh. There is no agricultural land occupied in Balochistan, he said.
In another reply, the minister said Pakistan Railway's land was primarily used for operational purpose or was reserved for future expansion/development works. However, he said Pakistan Railways also leases its surplus land all over the network for various purposes such as commercial and agricultural purposes etc as per Engineering Code Para 607 'Management of Land'.
He said the land was leased out through competitive bidding in a transparent manner after advertising in the newspapers, generating handsome revenue from commercial leasing of Railways land such as premium shops/kiosks, agriculture purposes, parking, and stacking etc.
Answering another question, the minister said there were no losses incurred by freight trains during the last two years. He said total profit of Rs 12.28 billion had been earned by freight trains in the last two years. Rashid said Pakistan Railways earned Rs 5.903 billion profit in 2018-2019 and Rs 6.373 billon profit in 2019-2020.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020