ISLAMABAD, Jan 21 (APP):Pakistan Railways has sought suggestions from the general public to rename 20 new trains including two VVIP to be launched during the current fiscal years.
“A prize amounting to Rs25,000 will be awarded to the person whose suggested name will be selected,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.The names must be submitted to Pakistan Railways Headquarter Lahore till March 1.
He Pakistan Railways was received good response from the passengers by introducing new trains during the first 90 days, so it had been decided to operate more trains.
All the trains are operating with above 70 percent capacity which increases up to 100 percent on weekends and only one train Mianwali Express is operating on less than 70 percent of its capacity, he said.
He said that Pakistan Railways teams had caught 6712 ticket dodgers from trains during last one week and Rs70 million were collected from them in the form of fare and fine.
To a question, he said the department has retrieved as many as 133 acres encroached land across the country from the unauthorized occupants during the ongoing campaign last year.
“The campaign is being monitored by the divisional superintendents and ministry itself,” he added.
Giving the details, he said Pakistan Railways has retrieved 12.498 acres land of commercial, residential and agricultural in Peshawar Division, 2.99 acres in Rawalpindi Division, 19,898 acres in Lahore Division, 70.21 acres in Multan Division, 19.563 acres in Sukkur Division, 7.10 acres in Karachi Division and 1.6 acres in Quetta Division.
He said a comprehensive policy has been devised to prevent further encroachments, if any new encroachment occurs in future, the officials concerned will be held responsible.
He said Standard Operating Procedure and Joint Procedure Order have been issued for strict implementation of this policy.
“A project for computerization of railway land record has already been initiated, in order to harmonize with the record of all the provincial Revenue Departments,” he added.
He said the project will be helpful in safeguarding the railway land from the land grabbers to ensure transparency and control encroachments.
