ISLAMABAD:Pakistan Railways has so far retrieved around 538 acres precious land worth billion of rupees from illegal occupants under its anti-encroachment operation across the country.
“The encroachment operation has been launched with the assistance of railway police and district administrations,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told reporter.
Giving details, he said, the department retrieved 273 acres land in Punjab, 133 acres from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 106 acres from Sindh and 26 acres from Balochistan.
The official said that out of the total land, 97 acres were commercial, 3,165 acres were residential and 110 acres were the agricultural land of the Pakistan Railways.
He said the government was taking several steps to retrieve encroached land from the land grabbers including detailed survey was being carried out to identify the encroached land, occupied by the individuals and under illegal occupation of various government departments.
The official said the campaign was being monitored by the Divisional Superintendents, Headquarters office and Ministry of Railways.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and joint procedure orders had been issued since for strict implementation of this policy, the official added.
He said that First Information Reports (FIRs) were being lodged and cases were registered and sent to Pakistan Railways Judicial Magistrates for expeditious trial.
The issue regarding illegal occupation and possession of Pakistan Railways land by government departments and institutions had also been taken up with the departments concerned, he added.
He said it was an ongoing campaign which would continue till the elimination and regularization of encroachments.
The official said Pakistan Railways owned 167,690 acres of land across the country, of which 90,326 acre is in Punjab, 39,428 acre in Sindh, 28,228 acre in Balochistan and 9,708 acre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.