ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Railways was expecting upto 15,000 acres increase in assets, estimated at billions of rupees, after completion of computerization land record project.
The project to computerize land record of Pakistan Railways, which faced delay due to security concerns in Balochistan province, will be completed by June 2017.
“The officials concerned faced security problems especially in Balochistan while conducting physical survey of the land, which caused delay in completion of the project,” sources in ministry of Railways told the state-run news agency.
They said a Land Record Management Information System (LRMS) was being developed with the support of Urban Unit of Punjab government and an agreement had already been signed in this regard.
Earlier, the project was scheduled to be completed in March 2016. After the completion of the project, it would be possible to ascertain ownership, location and condition of Pakistan Railways property.
Giving details of the land of Pakistan Railways, they said the department had a total of 167,690 acres land including 90,326 acres in Punjab, 39,428 acres in Sindh, 28,228 acres in Balochistan and 9,707 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Punjab province tops the list where 2,170 acres of land was encroached followed by Sindh with 1,189 acres, Balochistan with 619 acres and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 251 acres, they added.
Though major portion of the encroached land was in two provinces, however Balochistan tops the list in respect of value amounting to Rs 50.9 billion followed by Punjab at Rs 22.58 billion, Sindh 11.5 billion and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rs 7.7 billion.
However, they claimed that railways ministry in different phases had retrieved over 3,550 acres of land from illegal occupants since January 2012; and had approached the Supreme Court against the provinces not transferring railways land in its favour.
