Daily Times

National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to start the Mainline-1 (ML-1) project at the earliest after completing all the documents and necessary steps.

The committee that met here with Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan in the chair apprised that the phase-I would start in end of this year or in start of next year and would be completed within five years.

Secretary, Ministry of Railways briefed the Committee about the project of Main Line (ML-1). Divisional Superintendents, Pakistan Railways, Lahore, Mughalpura, Peshawar and Rawalpindi briefed the Committee about encroachments and lease of Railways land.

They talked about non-cooperation of concerned district administration during anti-encroachment operations.

The Committee recommended to approach the Provincial Governments for supporting during such operations.

The Committee showed displeasure on presence of some officers on zoom and directed their presence in person in next meetings.

The Inspector General of Police, Pakistan Railways also briefed about issues of staff, equipment, salaries and packages of Railways Police. The Committee recommended to perform its role to resolve those issues.

The Secretary also talked about outstanding dues of Rs. 2155 million which had to be paid by sponsoring agencies of Railway level crossings.

The Committee recommended to approach the Provincial Governments to pay all the dues to Pakistan Railways.

Lastly, the Committee extended the duration of Sub-Committee, which was constituted in previous meeting of the Standing Committee to look into the matters of encroachments/ lease of Railways land under the Convenership of Ramesh Lal, MNA, for thirty days.

The meeting was attended by Ramesh Lal, Waseem Qadir, Sadiq Ali Memon, Ibrar Ahmad, Zulfiqar Bachani, Syed Waseem Hussain, Ahmed Saleem Siddiqui, Syed Shah Ahad Ali Shah, Shafqat Abbas and Muhammad Jamal Ahsan Khan.

The senior officers from Ministry of Railways and Pakistan Railways were also present in the meeting.