ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Railways has sought suggestions from the generalpublic to rename 20 new trains including two VVIP to be launched during thecurrent fiscal years.“A prize amounting to Rs25,000 will be awarded to the person whosesuggested name will be selected,” an official in the Ministry of Railwaystold APP.The names must be submitted to Pakistan Railways Headquarter Lahore tillMarch 1.He Pakistan Railways was received good response from the passengers byintroducing new trains during the first 90 days, so it had been decided tooperate more trains.All the trains are operating with above 70 percent capacity which increasesup to 100 percent on weekends and only one train Mianwali Express isoperating on less than 70 percent of its capacity, he said.He said that Pakistan Railways teams had caught 6712 ticket dodgers fromtrains during last one week and Rs70 million were collected from them inthe form of fare and fine.To a question, he said the department has retrieved as many as 133 acresencroached land across the country from the unauthorized occupants duringthe ongoing campaign last year.“The campaign is being monitored by the divisional superintendents andministry itself,” he added.Giving the details, he said Pakistan Railways has retrieved 12.498 acresland of commercial, residential and agricultural in Peshawar Division, 2.99acres in Rawalpindi Division, 19,898 acres in Lahore Division, 70.21 acresin Multan Division, 19.563 acres in Sukkur Division, 7.10 acres in KarachiDivision and 1.6 acres in Quetta Division.He said a comprehensive policy has been devised to prevent furtherencroachments, if any new encroachment occurs in future, the officialsconcerned will be held responsible.
He said Standard Operating Procedure and Joint Procedure Order have beenissued for strict implementation of this policy.“A project for computerization of railway land record has already beeninitiated, in order to harmonize with the record of all the provincialRevenue Departments,” he added.He said the project will be helpful in safeguarding the railway land fromthe land grabbers to ensure transparency and control encroachments.
