The government’s seriousness in resolving obstinate financial crunch of Pakistan Railways (PR) can easily be gauged from the fact that despite the passage of around three years since federal government procured Railways land for Multan Package in 2009 on directives of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan Railways has yet not received cost of the land amounting to Rs916 million. The railway land which had been used for the completion of four schemes announced under Multan package includes expansion of Bahawalpur road worth Rs319.93 million occupying 2.6 acres area. Similarly Bungalow No 28 worth Rs185.77 million covering the area of 2.37 acres came under the hammer.
Railways Land, worth Rs332.79 million, had also been occupied for the relocation of affectees of Fly-over, from Chowk Aziz Hotel to old Shujabad road covering area of 4.36 acres. Another property of railways falling under the Fly-over, worth Rs77.76 million occupying the area of 4.37 acres, had also been secured for the PMs Multan package. Ironically railways officials are in a fix for last three years, whether to send the Summary to the PM Secretariat asking for payment of cost of land occupied by schemes of PM,s Multan Package or not, despite the tight financial situation of Pakistan Railways, at the time when its trains are shutting down due to the out of order locomotives and shortage of fuel.
After the exploitation from the PM, it was revealed that Law enforcement forces known to be disciplined as compared to the other institutions of the State were also occupying 861 acres land of PR without paying any dues to the cash strapped entity. Out of total 861 acres land 92.65 acres were occupied by Pakistan Army, 607.25 acres of land by Pakistan rangers and 161 acres of land occupied by Frontier Corps, Baluchistan worth billions of rupees.
The provinces were also playing their part in derailing the railways as out of the total 106 acres of land; Punjab is occupying 33 acres, Baluchistan 10.36 acres, Khyber-Pakthunkhwa 22.7 acres while different government federal departments were also not let behind by occupying 40.6 acres railways land.
Similarly the provincial government departments were occupying the railways land according to which Punjab’s provincial departments were in hold of 33.113 acres railways land, Khyber Pakthunkhwa holding 227 acres, Sindh 242.30 acres and 79.22 acres railways land in Baluchistan.
According to the railways record, a total 4231 acres of railways land is occupied by encroachers, out of which 241 acres by agricultural, 205 acres by commercial and 1568 acre by residential encroachers. Similarly 1045 acres of railways land is occupied by residents of un-authorised slums (Katchi Abadis) while 1172 acres again occupied by various government departments.
At present, out of a total 167690 acres railways land in the country, 126426 acres is under operational use, 4231 acres is under un-authorised slums (Katchi Abadis), 403 acres railways land is used under regularised slums.
Of the 167,690 acres of total railways land, 90,326 acres are in Punjab, 39428 acres in Sindh, 28,228 acres in Baluchistan and 9,707 acres is in KPK.
According to the estimate, 167,690 acres of total railways land worth over Rs245 billion according to the AASR Associates report (2002-03) the cost of 126,426 acres of operational railways land is Rs90, 695 million and 5,234 acres residential railways land worth Rs89, 108 million. Similarly out of total railways land, 34,325 acres worth Rs10, 857 million is comprised of agricultural land and 1,705 acres (1 per cent) of total railways land worth Rs55, 157 is identified as commercial.
The reports revealed that the land is primarily used for Railway’s own operational purposes includes an area of 100 ft from the center line of extreme track (50 ft, incase of agricultural purposes) is reserved for railways operations and no commercial activities are allowed in this area.
The surplus railways land given on a short term lease by the divisions for agricultural purposes includes stacking, taxi or bus stands, shopping centers etc. However, leasing of highly commercial land is done on long term basis.
As per Railways Engineering Code Para (807-E) all the available Railways land is required to be managed on commercial lines. “All Railways land should be managed on commercial lines, and each Railways Administration should endeavour to develop the resources of land and put to profitable use, any areas in its occupation which though not eligible for disposal is lying idle and can be put to profitable use.”
