Pakistan Railways has leased out over 4,603 acres of its land during the last three and half years to transform the department into profitable entity by generating more revenue.
“The leased-out land was located in seven divisions including Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Multan and Sukkar,” an official in the Ministry of Railways said. He also divulged details of a plan, aimed at exploiting 25 mega sites of Pakistan Railways commercially under public-private partnership.
An expression of interest to hire the consultant for the purpose was already given in the national and local newspapers of the country, he said. Likewise, he said a second phase was also on the cards under which some 111 new commercial sites were identified for commercial use through public private partnership. To a question, he said Pakistan Railways had also decided to accelerate its ongoing anti-encroachment operation against land grabbers across the country to recoup its land from different individuals, groups and even business organizations using it for residential, commercial and agriculture purposes for decades.
“The anti-encroachment operation will be launched with the assistance of Railway Police and district administrations of the provincial governments,” he added.
