LAHORE, Sept 27: The executive committee of railway board has approved “new marketing initiatives” for accelerating the pace of procedural work on various land and network commercialization projects.

The committee at a recent meeting also decided to involve other departments while processing a project “to inculcate a sense of ownership and participation among all railway desks”.

Under the new procedural drill, a contract should be signed within 15 weeks of identifying a project.

The member finance, the financial adviser, directors of legal, technical and vigilance departments and the divisional superintendent concerned will be involved in the procedure, from fixing the benchmark price to implementation of a project.

The step will ensure enhanced transparency in every activity as well as inculcation of a sense of participation among officials of other departments.

It was decided that the true value of a property would be finalized on the basis of three exercises. These included approaching local real estate managers and looking out for already established precedents within the demography of the targeted property.

The local divisional superintendent will provide DC prices regarding a piece of land while the financial adviser will consult authorized valuators of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in coordination with the marketing directorate for the purpose.

The valuation would be done on a case-to-case basis for which a separate head of account would be established by the finance member. The cost of hiring professional services would be met out of the cash flow of respective projects.

The committee also decided that bid securities would not be refunded in case an investor backs out subsequent to submission of tenders.

A property would not be advertized before establishing benchmarks, it said, directing the authorities concerned to give a minimum of two weeks for submission of applications by the interested parties.

All submissions would be received and catalogued in the office of the marketing directorate concerned in the presence of a representative of the vigilance directorate.

The committee also decided to avoid commercial exploitation of landed property on joint venture or built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis unless and until there were additional financial benefits.

It decided that a maximum of two weeks would be given to all concerned offices for vetting draft agreements.