LAHORE, Sept 25: The Pakistan Railways is conducting a survey of katchi abadis on its land in its three divisions for the grant of ownership rights to legal occupants. Federation of Katchi Abadis of Punjab president Haji Zafar Iqbal Jatala told Dawn on Saturday the survey of 37 such abadis in Sukkur, Multan and Rawalpindi divisions had been completed.

Beginning on Sept 19, the survey is scheduled to be completed by Oct 4. The railways is being assisted by the Kachi Abadis directorate, revenue officials and representatives of dwellers.

Jatala said the survey of Basti Raygaran (Bahawalnagar), Town Yazman (Yazman Mandi) in Multan division, Railway Yard (Khanpur) and Nafees Colony (Rahim Yar Khan) in Sukkur division, and Quaidabad (Khushab) in Rawalpindi division was under way.

So far, no-objection certificates (NoCs) for 50 such settlements had been issued.

The aim of the survey, he said, was to demarcate the shanties as these were in 1985.

According to PR officials, some 3,570 acres of railway land is under illegal occupation. Of the 163 katchi abadis on 1,211 acres, 85 are in the Punjab on 469 acres, 76 in Sindh on 732 acres and two in the NWFP on 11 acres.

The railways owned a total of 160,000 acres out of which 124,000 acres is in operational use. At least 3,500 acres had been licensed or leased out.

No construction within a radius of 100 feet from the centre of the main line and 50 feet from the centre of the branch line is allowed. Most of the katchi abadis are built within a radius of around 15 to 20 feet from the track.

The railway officials fear that in case of derailment or accident, there are chances of large-scale devastation. The katchi abadi residents incessantly use both sides of track which can also lead to any eventuality.

The officials said that ideally there should be four rail tracks — two for passenger and as many for freight traffic — for smooth train movement. But the encroachments along the Cantt-Shahdara belt left hardly any room for laying another track.

Besides the establishment of katchi abadis on the railway land, a number of commercial plazas and factories have also been set up and are functioning without any let and hindrance along the railway tracks. The encroachments have also deprived the organization of undertaking any expansion plan.

The land encroachment phenomena started soon after independence. However, it reached “epidemic” level in 1970 when the PPP announced that “the land belonged to the person who occupied it.”

However, the idea of katchi abadi was developed during Gen Ziaul Haq’s regime when the military government decided to recognize and regularize katchi abadis that comprised at least 100 houses. Funds were allocated for providing basic amenities to such localities which gave a boost to the activities of land mafia.

In 1985, the political government of Muhammad Khan Junejo reduced the size of katchi abadis to 40 houses, granting ownership rights to occupants. This further encouraged the land mafia and they started encroaching upon more and more state land and building residential as well as commercial plazas on it.