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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has retrieved over 529 acres of land worth billions of rupees from illegal occupants under its anti-encroachment operation across the country during the last four years.
“The encroachment operation has been launched with the assistance of railway police and district administrations,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.
Giving details, he said, the department retrieved 267 acres land in Punjab, 133 acres from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 106 acres from Sindh and 23 acres from Balochistan.
The official said that out of the total land, 91 acres were commercial, 309 acres were residential and 104 acres were the agricultural land of the Pakistan Railways.
He said that Pakistan Railways was taking several steps to retrieve encroached land from the land grabbers including detailed survey was being carried out to identify the encroached land, occupied by the individuals and under illegal occupation of various government departments.
The official said the campaign was being monitored by the Divisional Superintendents, Headquarters office and Ministry of Railways.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and joint procedure orders have been issued since for strict implementation of this policy, the official added.
He said that First Information Reports (FIRs) were being lodged and cases were registered and sent to Pakistan Railways Judicial Magistrates for expeditious trial.
The issue regarding illegal occupation and possession of Pakistan Railways land by government departments and institutions has also been taken up with the concerned departments, he added.
He said it was an ongoing campaign that would continue till the elimination and regularization of encroachments.
The official said Pakistan Railways owns 167,690 acres of land across the country, of which 90,326-acre is in Punjab, 39,428-acre in Sindh, 28,228-acre in Balochistan and 9,708-acre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
