PR in the Peshawar Division is in total disarray, mainly due to the massive encroachment on the railway land

The seemingly unending plunging journey of Pakistan Railways (PR) keep growing from one area to another across the country despite occasional efforts by the federal department to revive the railways that suffered 150 billion rupees in the three and a half fiscal years between 2018 to 2021, forcing discontinuation of trains on 36 routes and outsourcing of 15 trains to private train operators.

Another issue faced by the railways is the recovery of 9.89 billion rupees as of the fiscal year 2021 owed by the different federal, provincial and private sectors. Private institutions owe PR a whopping 6.27 billion rupees while provincial and federal institutions owe PR 2.44 billion and 1.17 billion rupees respectively.

The miseries of Railways in Peshawar Division are no smaller in magnitude. One of the main challenges faced by PR in the Peshawar Division is the encroachment on its lands in different areas. According to PR official documents, at least 1,180 acres of land belonging to PR have been encroached by different people, including 449 acres by the government and 831 acres by private persons.

Furthermore, of the 449 acres under illegal control of government institutions or personnel, construction of roads has claimed 189 acres of land, while 51 acres have been encroached by the construction of offices over it. Similarly, 18 acres of railway land are under the illegal control of educational institutions and 12 acres have been encroached by people for agricultural purposes.

The railway’s land under illegal control of people from the public includes the use of 543 acres of railways land for agricultural purposes. Similarly, 193 acres have been consumed by the construction of residential buildings and 71 acres are under commercial use. A further 22 acres of land have mosques, cemeteries and shrines built over it.

Over the past four years, PR has filed 151 cases against encroachers in the jurisdiction of the Peshawar Division alone. In many cases, the encroached areas are not being vacated despite railways winning court cases against the offenders. It is also reported that in some cases, people have permanently occupied lands belonging to the railways.

However, according to Divisional Executive Engineer (DEE) Tayyab Riaz the encroachment issues are only in the closed sections of track and stations with no train operations for the past many years in Peshawar division jurisdiction.

“Since 2019, 125.58 acres of encroached land, including 60.44 acres commercial, 2.52 acres residential and 62.625 acres agricultural land worth 10,409.20 million rupees have been recovered by the PR. We anticipate recovering more land as we continue our operations against encroachment,” Tayyab Riaz informed Bol News.

It merits mentioning that the PR has also recovered PKR 151 million by de-sealing 1,263 shops and 268 plots in Minawali, Kundian, Sarai Naurang, Mardan, Nowshera and Peshawar areas under the jurisdiction of Peshawar Division railways.

He added that one of the main issues in recovering encroached railways lands is the filing of cases in the court for land ownership by the encroachers against PR. “In order to avoid action by PR officials, along with PR Police, local administration and local police, the encroachers often claim ownership of the PR lands and get stay orders from the courts which delays the proceedings as the court procedures take their due time,” Tayyab Riaz detailed.

Another worrying issue for Pakistan Railways in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the non-functionality of several lines that remain closed for many decades.

With 65 stations, the total jurisdiction of Peshawar Division railways is 848.76 kilometres. However, only 456 kilometres of track over 16,287 acres are operational while at least six tracks measuring 392 kilometres are closed for long. Unfortunately, no sincere efforts have been made to restore these tracks. While time and again, reports of plundering rail tracks and railway equipment from deserted stations emerge in the media.

These closed tracks include the 28-kilometres-long Mardan-Charsadda track, Kohat Cantonment to Thal track measuring 100.78 kilometres, Mari Indus-Kurram Bridge track of 59.25 kilometres, Kurram Bridge to Bannu line measuring 79.03 km, 74.70 km Lakki Marwat to Tank track and the iconic Peshawar-Landi Kotal track measuring 51.08 kilometres.

“The reason for the closure of Kohat to Thal and Mari Indus to Kurram, Bannu and Tank is the narrow-gauge track which is obsolete for long across the world. These tracks have remained closed for almost 50 years now. There are no new narrow-gauge locomotives or rolling stock available to make these tracks operational. We will have to upgrade the tracks to broad gauge before procuring new rolling stock,” Engineer Tayyab Riaz informed.

The historic Peshawar-Landi Kotal track became operational in 1925. With eight stations, 137 bridges and 34 tunnels, the British-era track was used to connect the Peshawar Cantonment with the Landi Kotal in Khyber agency in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) close to the border of Afghanistan. The track was closed 15 years ago in June 2007 after the rails and bridges suffered severe damage due to floods. A feasibility report has estimated that at least 1,750 million rupees are required to restore the track.

Engineer Tayyab Riaz added that the aim was to restore the track up to Landi Kotal in the first phase. “Tracks were washed out in floods in 2007 and later in 2010 when a major bridge was also washed out along with tracks and track embankments. We have prepared a feasibility report for the restoration of that track to Landi Kotal in the first phase as we desire to expand it to Jalalabad in Afghanistan, for establishing a rail link with our western neighbour as well as the Central Asian Republics. The restoration of the track will also restart the Khyber Safari train that had stopped in 2007,” Tayyab Riaz said, adding that consultants were already working on the feasibility of extending the track to Jalalabad.

Peshawar division railways records show incredible outstanding amounts to several government departments, including PKR 396 million to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa food department and PKR 235.37 million to National Highways Authority. Similarly, the railway department is in correspondence for the transfer of 91.3 acres of railway land by the provincial government in Bannu and 124.14 kanal at Malakandher in Peshawar. The department is also in correspondence with the education department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab for outstanding land charges for long.

In an encouraging step last year, PR resumed its Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) Cargo Train in December 2021 after a gap of nine years. In a first-of-its-kind occurrence since 1870, about 200 kilometres of track out of 638 kilometres of Quetta- Taftan railway track was marked for upgradation in Pakistan Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2021-2022. However, Pakistan Railways is a long way from modernizing its outdated system allowing its trains a maximum speed of up to 80 kilometres per hour on most tracks. Procuring High-Capacity, High-Speed rolling stock still seems a distant possibility as Pakistan’s lack of a transportation policy often prioritizes the construction of highways and roads instead of modernizing the railway system.