A National Assembly's panel on Monday directed the Ministry of Railways to retrieve its precious land of 175 acres from encroachers in Lahore.

The sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Railways, which met with its convener MNA Ramesh Lal in the chair, was informed by senior officials of the Ministry of Railways that around 37,351 acres of land are under utilization of the Railways. Out of the total 37,351 acres, the officials said that 175 acres are still under encroachment, 19,039 acres of land are under operational use, 2,018 acres are leased out, 3,127 acres of land have been leased to government and defense department, 1,660 acres of land are used by stations, stores, workshops and colonies, 1,481 acres of land are barren and adjacent to the track, regularized kachi abadis (slums) occupy 206 acres and 82 acres of land are under commercial utilization.

The committee was further told that there are residential encroachments on 175 cares of land in Lahore and most of the encroachments fall within the operational zone or are the illegal extensions of already established slums which have been established after March 23, 1985.

The officials said that around 1,399 Marlas of land, valuing Rs 271 million, have been retrieved during the year of 2019, besides recovery of the leased land to the tune of Rs 77.5 million. The committee directed the ministry to make efforts to retrieve the encroached land at the earliest. The meeting was attended by MNAs Sabir Hussain Kaimkhani, Aftab Jahangir and Amjad Ali Khan, besides the officials of the relevant departments and the ministry.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019