ISLAMABAD – Around 849 acres of precious railway land was leased out to428 individuals by the Ministry of Railways in Sindh during last five yearsbut in some cases failed to collect even a single penny from theleaseholders.
In 2013-14 when the previous government took over, a total of 16.155 acresof land was leased out, which rose to 280.349 acres in 2014-15.
In 2015-16, the area of the land leased out by the Railways increased to346.50 acres while in 2016-17, a total of 206.84 acres were licensed orleased out to different individuals for different purposes, a source in theMinistry told APP.
The source said the Pakistan Railways-owned land was leased out throughcompetitive bidding for varying purposes including agriculture, premiumshops, parking stands and others.
The land allotted for agriculture under the head of ‘cultivatable land’ wasleased for three years and the ‘barren land’ was leased out for threeyears, which was extendable for another three years.
The land meant for shops were leased out for 10 years extendable for fiveyears till September 2014. However, the policy was revised in October 2014and lease period was restricted to seven years only. The land for parkingstands was leased by the railways on a yearly basis for the alreadydeveloped stands whereas the land for new parking sites had a fixed leaseterm of three years and extendable for two years.
A lease of 150 square yards of a car parking area was awarded in thejurisdiction of Karachi Cantonment to an individual for the period February16, 2013 to February 15, 2015 against approved/accepted rate of Rs1,262,000 but that too could not be collected.
Read Top Stories
In the same period, another party was leased out space of 7,262 squareyards in Tando Adam for car parking lot far below the agreed amount ofRs150, 000. However, not a single rupee could be recovered from him asagreed.
On the contrary, another individual was leased out 2.80 acres of land forcultivation for three years starting from 2014 below the approved rate ofRs18, 500, though the agreed amount was recovered.
In Mirpurkhas, three acres of land was leased out for three years in 2014for agriculture purposes against a meager amount of Rs10, 200 andfortunately the amount was recovered from him by the authority.
A lease for five acres of land was awarded for agriculture for a period ofthree years from 2015 to 2018 near Tanvarai Shah, Garhi Khairo, at the rateof Rs16,000 per acre but only Rs50,000 could be recovered.
Two acres of land was leased in Larkana for unspecified period at the rateof Rs15, 200 per acres and only Rs4, 500 could be recovered whereas oneacre of railways’ land was leased for the purpose of agriculture againstthe contract of Rs17,000 per acre but only Rs1,000 was recovered. – APP
