Karachi: Railway land worth billions taken back from encroachers

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Shahid Husain
Pakistan Railways (PR) has retrieved 221.53 acres of land out of 403.628 acres occupied by powerful encroachers during 2007-08, said a senior official of the department on the condition of anonymity.

The encroached land worth billions of rupees included 104.842 acres of commercial land, 250.786 acres of residential land, and 48 acres of agricultural land, the official said requesting anonymity.

“Land belonging to railways has already been occupied by several town nazims, as well as nationalist organisation Jeay Sindh, Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority (SKAA), and the truck mafia,” said the source, and added that land had also been retrieved from the Frontier Works Organisation.

The Karachi Division of the railway line extends from Keamari in Karachi to Tando Adam on the main line, and up to Khokrapar and Dadu on branch lines.

Between January 2007 and February 2008, PR retrieved commercial land worth billions of rupees from Karachi Cantt, Bachat Bazar Reti Line, Bachat Bazar Kala Pul, Bachat Bazar Orangi Town, eight buffalo sheds at KOT-BOL section, Jhudho Railway Station, Marshalling Yard, Pipri, Karachi Cantt Railway Colony, Buffalo Bara at Mirpurkhas, Landhi Railway Colony, and Buffalo Bara at Kotri Railway Colony. It also reclaimed land occupied by a petrol station at Drigh Road Station, Kala Pul, and land occupied by the nazim and naib nazim of Bin Qasim Town.

The official pointed out that prime railway land that was needed for operational purposes had been turned into katchi abadis at Reti Line near Clifton/ Bath Island.

The settlement was spread over an area of 7.33 acres, out of which 3.36 acres were declared katchi abadis. Allegedly, a director of the Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority was reluctant give up the railway land, and claimed that it was the property of the City District Government Karachi. The land was retrieved with great difficulty. The SKAA director says he has issued an NOC.

Yet more railway land was retrieved at Karachi Bunder and Wazir Mansion. According to the same official, in July the town nazim of Gulshan-e-Iqbal was discovered occupying four acres of railway land at Gillani Railway Station. The forcible occupation was compounded by the construction of shops, even though the land had been earmarked for the construction of Karachi Circular Railway, which is being revived to ensure more transport facilities to the citizens of the metropolis.

Similarly, 32 acres of land was encroached by the truck mafia at Wazir Mansion, but later retrieved by PR after a long tussle.

Another source in PR said that during the era of President General Pervez Musharraf, the then railways minister Lt. Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi sold railway land to the National Logistic Cell and a private company at a throwaway price of Rs65,000 per acre without anyone objecting.

Due to internal migration, a population the size of Islamabad’s is added to Karachi every year. In addition, immigrants flow in from Bangladesh, Burma, India, Arab countries, and Iran. The metropolis already has 16 million people and it has been seen that land-grabbing has become a lucrative business.