ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Railways is planning to sell out as many as 10commercial plots worth billions of rupees located in Lahore and Karachidivision to overcome deficit of the department.
Presently Pakistan Railway’s deficit is Rs 40 billion while theorganization is also under the debt of Rs 25 billion, official sources told.
They said the minister has directed the Railways Real Estate DevelopmentCompany (REDIMCO) to formulate a master plan for the sale of commercialland of the department as soon as possible.
The sources said that Pakistan Railways assets will be utilized throughpublic-private joint ventures. All the Divisional Superintendents ofLahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar have been appointed as focal personsin this regard.
The focal persons, they said would coordinate with Chief Secretaries andBoards of Revenues in concerned provinces for the early transfer of land tothe department as the major portion is not officially in the name ofPakistan Railways.
According to a document of land section of the department, PakistanRailways has owned more than 105,000 acres of land. The Railwayadministration has nominated four divisional superintendents as focalpersons to properly transfer the land of railways to it.
Out of 168,000 acres of PR’s land, 63,500 acres of land has already beentransferred on its name. Similarly, out of total land, 125,000 acres ofland is under operation of Pakistan Railways, while 19,234 acres has beenfixed for future usage and 12,568 acres have been given on lease while4,010 acres land is under control of land mafia and Katchi Abadies, 4,525acres is agriculture land while 413 acres is commercial land which hasworth of billions.
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Pakistan Railways has owned more than 48,000 acres in Punjab, 34,300 acresin Sindh, 20,000 acres in Balochistan and 3,279 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The sources said that Ministry of Railways has requested the CabinetDivision to lease out or sell more than 20,000 acres of Pakistan Railwaysland which is presently in the possession of the department and is not inany usage.
Over the losses of Pakistan Railways, they said the main reason of lossesto the department was that no improvement had been made in the freightsector for the last many years.
They said one-window operation will be initiated for the freight handlingto facilitate the people, as the new government attaches top priority tothe enhancement of the railways’ revenue and reduction of its deficit.
The new administration was also considering curtailing the railways’expenses by 15 per cent through austerity measures, as the minister hassought details of protocol vehicles under use of the officials, they added.- APP
