ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Railways (PR) has decided to accelerate its ongoing anti-encroachment operation against land grabbers across the country to recoup its land from different individuals, groups and even business organisations using it for residential, commercial and agriculture purposes for decades.

“The encroachment operation will be launched with the assistance of Railway Police and district administrations of the provincial governments,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP.

He said that PR has retrieved around 478 acres precious land worth billion of rupees from illegal occupants under its anti-encroachment operation across the country during the present government tenure.

Giving details, the official said the department retrieved 245 acres land in Punjab, 123 acres from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 94 acres from Sindh and 16 acres from Balochistan.

To a question, he said that more than 5,000 acres of PR’s land was under encroachment in Sindh and currently in the use of different individuals, groups and even business organisations.

The official said that PR possessed around 45,663 acres of land in its Karachi and Sukkur divisions and as many as 39,759 of acres were in operational use.