LAHORE – Pakistan Railways has retrieved land worth billions of rupees in Lahore Division from the land grabbers during ongoing operation against the encroachers.
The operation was launched by Pakistan Railways on the directives of Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
According to the Ministry of Railways official, the department had recovered almost 8.5 kanal of Railways land in Okara after a successful operation against land grabbers last month.
The estimated market value of land was almost Rs3.5 billion whereas the kettle yards and taxi stands were constructed by the encroachers on the land, the official added.
The encroachers were minting a huge amount from the land and after several complaints by Divisional Superintendent of Lahore with the collaboration of Railway police resumed the operation against them and retrieved the land.
Pakistan Railways had owned almost thousands of acre land in Punjab whereas almost 2,076 acres land in Punjab has still encroached which is worth of billions of rupees, he added.
The land, he said is under four types of encroachment: commercial, residential, agricultural and unauthorized occupation of government departments.
The official said that hundreds of acres of Pakistan Railways land is still encroached by private individuals and the department is helpless to take actions against them because the most of encroachers approach the court and take stay orders whereas due to the slow processing of the cases in court delays the entire process.
He said that without the involvement of the department’s officials, no land grabber could take hold of the state land however the encroachments on railways land has degraded the beauty of the land and giving no revenue to the Pakistan Railways.
Pakistan Railways has prepared a comprehensive policy to prevent further encroachments, and cases of some lands are being heard at the courts and the land under un-authorized occupation has been retrieved, he added.
