RAWALPINDI, Jan 18: Pakistan Railways (PR) Chairman Shakeel Durrani has said efforts are underway to retrieve 4,000 kanals from encroachers.

Briefing the press in his office on Tuesday, he said the governments of NWFP and Sindh had already been approached in this regard, whereas Punjab would be contacted after Eid.

He said most of the encroached land was in big cities like Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Mr Durrani said the PR was planning to develop its estate in big cities through partnership with private sector, preferably international companies, for which an expression of interest would be sought soon.

In reply to a question regarding the railways' venture with private sector to construct a five-star hotel near Islamabad airport, he said the project had to be shelved because the station commander concerned had refused to permit the project.

He said the nature of the project had been changed to housing units, which would be constructed in collaboration with that company. Regarding improvement in services, he said the PR had set a target of attaining the 140km/hr speed in the next three years under the track rehabilitation programme.

Trains would start running on an experimental basis on the 25km Shujabad-Sher Shah track soon, he added. He regretted that road and rail sectors competed with each other instead of complementing one another. This, he said, was the biggest hindrance in the development of the railways.

He said the dualization of Lahore-Faisalabad and Lodhran- Khanewal sectors was being considered, whereas that of Khanewal- Raiwind sector was likely to begin next year. Mr Durrani said the PR also planned to extend its services to Islamkot and the coal mines areas of Sindh.

Similarly, feasibility for Gwadar-Quetta, Quetta-Bostan-Zhob- D.I.Khan, Peshawar-Kohat-Bannu-D.I.Khan-Bhakkar sectors had been completed. Studies on Chaman-Spin Boldak (Afghanistan) have been completed and the Lahore-Khanewal electrified sector was being replaced.

He said a large number of locomotives, coaches and wagons had arrived from China, whereas the remaining would be added to the fleet shortly. Of the 69 locomotives to be obtained from China, 31 have already arrived and are under trial.

He said 175 passenger coaches were to come from China, of which 40 completely built units, 60 semi-knocked down units and 30 completely knocked down units have reached, while the rest would be delivered soon.

The PR has got 165 freight wagons out of a total of 1,300 it is to get from China. Mr Durrani said it was for the first time in 32 years that there was an operational surplus during the first six months of the current fiscal year.