The Pakistan Railways has been taking effective steps, including leasing out its land, to enhance the generation of revenue, WealthPK reports.

Besides other steps to transform the department into a profitable entity, Pakistan Railways has leased out 4,694 acres of its precious land during the last four years. The leased-out land is located in seven divisions including Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi Multan and Sukkar.

An official of the Ministry of Railways told media that the government has also planned to retrieve the encroached land of the department from landgrabbers. He said that a detailed survey is being conducted to identify the encroached land, occupied by individuals and other government departments.

He said that Pakistan Railways has also decided to accelerate its ongoing anti-encroachment operation against landgrabbers across the country to retrieve its land from different individuals, groups and business organisations using it for residential, commercial and agriculture purposes.

The official said that the operation would be backed by the Railways Police and district administrations of the relevant provincial governments. The First Information Reports (FIRs) are being lodged and cases are registered and sent to judicial magistrates for expeditious trial of the landgrabbers.

He said that the issue of illegal occupation and possession of railways’ land by government departments and institutions is taken up with the relevant authorities.

The official said Pakistan Railways owns 167,690 acres of land across the country, of which 90,326-acre is situated in Punjab, 39,428-acre in Sindh, 28,228-acre in Balochistan and 9,708-acre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan Railways has launched special master-level classes in the railway engineering department in collaboration with Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences (PAFIST) to enhance the capacity of its engineers and technical staff.

The special classes have been organised through the Pakistan Railways Training Academy Walton, Lahore. The special cell for foreign training has also been set up at the Ministry of Railways.

“A policy for transfer of technology and indigenisation of railway rolling stock is being pursued in closer collaboration with China,” said the official.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk