‘Railways planning to utilise 10,913 acres of barren land’

Islamabad: Pakistan Railways is planning to utilise 10,913 acres barren land across the country by executing various projects to earn more revenue for the department.

Pakistan Railways has 8,424 acres barren land in Punjab, 1,346 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 263 in Sindh and 880 in Balochistan, sources in the Ministry of Railways told this agency. Giving detail, they said the department owns 167,690 acres land all over the country, out of which 90326 has in Punjab, 39428 in Sindh, 28228 in Balochistan and 9708 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They said that Pakistan Railways had leased out 15,172 acres land for various purposes across the country and around 3,330 acres land is under encroachments of different government departments and individuals.

The sources said Pakistan Railways was using 1,086 acres land for Railway Housing Societies in four provinces and 806 acres land is under the utilisation of regular and non-regular slums.

Pakistan Railways has reserved 12,808 acres land in four provinces for future operational use including 4,364 acres in Punjab, 1,800 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 900 acres in Sindh and 5,744 acres in Balochistan, they added.

To a question, they said that Pakistan Railways has leased out around 6,496 acres railway land across the country to different departments and private persons to generate extra revenue.

"The land was leased and licensed out for various purposes including premium shops, stacking, agricultural and parking stands etc," they added. Giving province wise breakup, they said that Pakistan Railways has leased out 5,132 acres in Punjab, 833 in Sindh, 470 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 59 acres in Balochistan.