He also claimed that performance of Railways cargo sector has improved ten times as compared with the performance in the previous government. The minister also informed the house that total outstanding amount of Pakistan Railways against the departments of federal and provincial government is Rs 2186.309 million.
The departments from which the Railways has to receive its dues include: Defence, National Highways Authority, Wapda, PTCL, Postal Services, Accountant General, Police, Pakistan State Oil, SSGCL, Post Master General, State Bank of Pakistan, CMA (Military Warrants) and concession vouchers.
To a question, he said that there are a total of 2,400 unmanned railways crossings across the country and his ministry needs at least Rs 25 billion to man them, with additional charges of Rs 3 billion per annum to keep them operational.
He said that his ministry with the help of a defence organisation has prepared model traffic signal for the railways crossings and this would help reduce accidents. The model traffic signal will start blinking and blowing a siren three minutes before the train's arrival on a railways crossing. The minister said that they have been trying their best to reduce accidents at the crossings and various steps have also been taken so far.
To another question, the minister said that around 95 percent of the record of the Railways land has been digitized and the remaining would also be completed at the earliest. He said when he took charge of the ministry in 2013, the whole record of the Railways land was in a shambles but now it has been updated by using the latest techniques and means.
The minister said that his ministry keeps doing targeted operations across the country against the illegal occupants of the Railways land, but their resources are limited and need help of the provincial governments to get rid of the land mafia occupying the Railways precious land.
The minister also informed the house that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces have handed over almost all the Railways land to the Railways Ministry, but Sindh and Punjab provinces are not cooperating in this regard despite a clear verdict of the Supreme Court on the issue. He said that his ministry is lenient about operations against slums but all other illegal occupants of the Railways land would not be spared.
To a question, he also said that people using the Railways land for commercial purposes must give a modest rent to the ministry; otherwise they would forcibly be evicted from the state land. The minister said that Railways land would not be allotted for housing societies of the Railways employees or for the benefit of any other land mafia.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017