Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Railways has earned around Rs 12770.02 million revenue by leasing out its across the country land for various purposes including short-term basis in the last ten years.

Pakistan Railways has leased and licensed out around 15025.44 acres land to generate extra revenue to the government departments for 21 to 33 years as per the policy, an official in the Ministry of Railways said.

Giving province wise details of the land, he said that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 656.98 acres were leased out, 12667.30 acres in Punjab, and 1560.13 acres in Sindh, 137.25 acres in Balochistan and 3.79 acres in Pakistan Railways network.

He said the assessment of commercial site was conducted through approved accredited evaluators of Pakistan Banking Association/State Bank of Pakistan for fixing a benchmark and then advertised for leasing in leading newspapers.

For agricultural purposes, he said that through competitive bidding by fixing ‘ousat bay’ rate as reserve price for open auction for a lease term of three years for cultivable land and extendable for another three years for barren land.

He said that for premium shops through competitive bidding by fixing the reserve price of premium and monthly rent on the basis of market rate of the locality for a lease term of ten years.

Stacking purposes, the official said that through bidding for a year and extendable for another year. Nursery purposes, he said that through bidding for a term of three years, extendable for another two years.

He said that for parking stands land is leased out on yearly basis for already developed stands. For new parking sites, lease term is three years, extendable for another two years.

The official said that Pakistan Railways was earned Rs 1636.71 million from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rs 7299.39 million from Punjab, Rs 2834.19 million from Sindh, Rs 486.29 million from Balochistan and Rs 513.44 million from railway network.