ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Railways has expedited the efforts and approached the federal and provincial departments to recover outstanding billion of rupees dues on account of using its land and other services.
“Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique has asked the official concerned to approach the federal and provincial departments for recovering the outstanding amount as soon as possible,” an official in the Ministry told APP here Sunday.
About the amount payable against the different departments, the official said that an amount of over Rs 8375 million (over 8 billion) was payable by different departments on account of using its land and various services.
The federal departments have to pay an amount of Rs 709.084 million, provincial departments Rs1980.217 million and autonomous and private bodies Rs 5685.736 million, he expressed.
Pakistan Railways, he said has upgraded as many as 167 vulnerable un-manned level crossings to manned level crossings, out of which 550 are identified by the department over the entire railway network last year. The relevant provincial government provided the finances to Pakistan Railways for the upgradation of un-manned level crossings in the country, he added.
He said that the present government was taking several steps including the up-gradation of unmanned and vulnerable railway level crossings across the country in collaboration with respective provincial governments.
The official said that there were two types of level crossings over the Pakistan Railways network, un-manned and manned level crossings, adding that the un-manned level crossings were without gate leaves.
“There are a total of 1,565 unmanned level crossings over the entire railway network and as per railway policy in vogue, the up-gradation of any unmanned or manned level crossing is the responsibility of road owning authority,” he added.
He said that a joint survey of Pakistan Railways and the Provincial Government was also conducted in 2013-14 to identify accident-prone/vulnerable un-manned level crossings across the country.
The official said that it also mentioned Section 12 of the Railway Act of 1890 that the district administration or road authority should bear the expenses for the upgrade of these unmanned level crossings.
