ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways has accelerated the efforts to retrieve the major portion of nearly 13,972 acres of land worth billions of rupees found under the illegal occupation of private individuals and different government departments across the country.
A Railways Ministry official said that nearly 5,809 acres were occupied in Punjab, 1,181 acres of land are under encroachment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 5,948 acres in Sindh, and 1,034 acres of land occupied in the province of Balochistan, APP reported.
He said the category of land under illegal occupations included residential, commercial, agricultural, and various persons or departments.
Pakistan Railways’ Encroached Land
Providing details of the land, the official said that nearly 769 acres were commercial in all the provinces, 3,309 residential, 5,512 acres of land agricultural, and 4382 were under encroachment by different persons or departments.
The official said the department had also decided to accelerate its ongoing anti-encroachment operation against land grabbers across Pakistan to recoup its land from different groups, individuals, and even business organizations that had been using it for residential, agricultural, and commercial purposes for decades.
The official added that the joint procedure orders have been issued to all Divisional Superintendents of Pakistan Railways to retrieve the land from encroachers.
He said that the anti-encroachment operations for retrieval of encroached land all over the Railway network are being launched by the concerned divisions, and notices are issued to encroachers under the Possession Ordinance 1965 for vacation of Railway land/structure within fourteen days.
The official said that the District Administration, Pakistan Railway Police, and law enforcement agencies are informed of necessary help in anti-encroachment operations.
