South Korea offers its cooperation in up-gradation of Railway-Lines

The Ministry of Railways has earned revenue of Rs 12.770 billion by leasing its resources country wide for different functions in the preceding 10-year

ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of South Korea to Pakistan Kwak Sung Kyu called on Federal Minister for Pakistan Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad on Monday, APP said.

The ambassador showed interest in up-gradation of the main railway lines, including ML-II and ML-III.

A high-power South Korean delegation will come to Pakistan to visit different departments of the Pakistan Railways on December 3, this year, a statement said.

In his remarks, the federal minister said that his department is ready for mutual cooperation with South Korea and added that the up-gradation of the ML-I, II and III is his priority.

He said, “Pakistan Railways is open to all merit-based international investments.”

Secretary Railway Board Farrukh Taimur Ghilzai, DG Planning Mohammad Yusuf and DG Technical Munawar Shah were also present during the meeting.

The Ministry of Railways has posted revenue of Rs 12.770 billion by leasing its resources country wide for different functions in the preceding 10 years.

According to details provided by an official of Ministry of Railways , almost 15,025.44 acre land was leased to the government departments for around 21 to 33 years, as per the plan to make additional revenue.

Also, the details provided province-wise, he stated that 656.98 acres of land was leased in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 12,667.30 acres of land in Punjab, 1,560.13 acres of land in Sindh, 137.25 acres in Balochistan & 3.79 acres in Pakistan Railways association.

Furthermore, he declared that the evaluation of commercial value of the sites was performed through the accredited evaluators of Pakistan Banking Association / State Bank of Pakistan in order to secure a benchmark and then advertisements were also given in various leading newspapers for leasing.

However, for agricultural reason, he said that land was auctioned through an aggressive bidding by setting up ‘ousat bay’ price as reserve price for a three year lease time period for land used for cultivation and also extendable for another three years for infertile land.

He also added that, first-class shops were also leased by means of competitive bidding by fixing the reserve price of premium and monthly rent on the basis of market rate of the locality for a lease term of at least ten years.

He mentioned that for parking stands, the land was leased on yearly basis for the stands that are already developed.

However, for new parking location, the lease term was three years, which is extendable for another two years.

The official confirmed that the Pakistan Railways had earned Rs 1,637 billion from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rs 7.299 billion from Punjab, Rs 2,834 billion from Sindh, Rs 486.29 million from Balochistan and Rs 513.44 million from railway system.

 

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