PESHAWAR, Jan 8: A foreign consortium has backed out of a deal to purchase a commercial plot from the Pakistan Railways in the expensive Peshawar Cantonment area, apparently because railways employees refused to vacate the area, according to official sources.

“The deal could not materialise as the occupants did not vacate the area,” said the Rawalpindi-based deputy director marketing of the Pakistan Railways.

The officer, in reply to a question, denied that the deal was cancelled on the interference of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which had investigated the matter and found that the land was being leased out at a price much lower than the prevalent market price.

But other sources insisted that the consortium had withdrawn from striking the deal after the NAB’s investigations.

The railways authorities had reached an understanding with the consortium of Canada, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia to lease out the commercial plot in the cantonment area.

The 58-kanal triangular plot, opposite the Cantt railway station, houses 50 residential quarters, eight bungalows, a well-furnished rest house and some offices with open space.

After reaching the understanding, the railways had immediately served notices on tenants a couple of months ago, asking them to vacate the land.

Deputy Director Marketing Sumaira Hameed told Dawn from Rawalpindi by telephone that the deal had been finalised with the consortium for Rs290 million (Rs 5,000,000 per kanal).

Despite the offer of an alternate housing colony for them, she said, the railways employees had refused to leave the area, due to which the group put off the deal. “This is only because of the attitude of our own employees,” she added.

About low price of the land, she said real estate business had drastically affected in Peshawar in the aftermath of the US war on terrorism in Afghanistan, therefore the management kept the price low.

But some sources at the railways divisional headquarters, Peshawar, told this reporter that the marketing section had offered the land at a very nominal price, which became a question mark in the official circles.

They said vigilance cell of the railways, headed by a retired army officer, had also shown its concerns over the deal.

An official of the cell said: “I myself informed the ministry that the price was very unreasonable than the market rate of land in the city.”

Some three years ago, the railways had leased out its property at around Rs7.75 million per kanal in Peshawar, he added.

Unlike the claim of the railways, real estate prices have increased manifold in the last three years as according to property dealers, a one-kanal commercial plot in the cantonment area costs about Rs10 million.

Official sources said the deal was cancelled on the NAB’s interference, apparently, after certain political quarters had levelled corruption allegations against the high-ups of the communications ministry.