KARACHI, May 1: The project of fencing the railway tracks in Karachi so as to avoid any untoward incident has been delayed due to the illegal encroachments on land of the Pakistan Railways along the tracks.
The PR division Karachi officials say as per rules it is mandatory to leave open space of 100-feet on each side of the track. They said that in several areas from Cantt Station to Landhi, this open area was encroached. Due to these encroachments just 15-16 feet open space is left along rail tracks in areas like Kalaboard, Hazara Colony, etc, they informed.
According to the PR Divisional Engineer Zone-1 Nooruddin, it is due to these encroachments neither a boundary wall can be constructed nor fencing can be done.
He said the feasibility report to fence the rail tracks from Cantonment to Landhi station had been sent to the PR Headquarters, Lahore. The work on this project will be initiated with an estimated cost of Rs20 million, he added.
The fencing of railway tracks is the need of the hour as a number of people have lost their lives while crossing the tracks, he noted adding that the main hurdle in way of materialisation of this project was encroachments along these tracks.
The official said that the PR Karachi Division had approached the provincial and city governments over the issue, seeking their support for removal of these encroachments as the removal of hundreds of houses was not a simple task.
Meanwhile, sources told that vacation notices had been served by the PR to the residents of all such localities, asking them to vacate the land within 14 days but in vain.
They added that people had refused to vacate the land as they were not provided with alternate plots.
When asked about construction of an underpass at Malir Halt, Mr Nooruddin said that the PR had already sent a proposal in this regard to the chief engineer Pakistan Railways.
He said that the location of underpass (at PR 23km between pole No. 1-2) in UC No 6 in Malir-15 was not approved.
A joint survey of PR engineers and city government officials was conducted and a new location was selected, he said adding the report in this regard had already been forwarded to the headquarters for final approval. Positive response is expected within 10-15 days, he informed.—PPI
