Absence of railways minister irks NA body

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Railways told the Standing Committee of National Assembly on Railways that the phase-1 of the Main Line (ML-1) project was expected to start by the end of this year or early next year and would be completed within five years.

The meeting of the NA standing committee on Railways was held under Chairman Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan here at the Parliament House Tuesday.

The committee suggested starting and completing the phase-1 of ML-1 project as early as possible. The committee showed displeasure on the absence of minister concerned from the meeting.

The secretary also briefed the committee about the outstanding dues of Rs2.115 billion which had to be paid by sponsoring agencies of railway level crossings. The committee recommended to approach the provincial governments to pay all the dues to Pakistan Railways.

Divisional superintendents, Pakistan Railways, Lahore, Mughalpura, Peshawar and Rawalpindi briefed the committee about encroachments and lease of railways land. They talked about non-cooperation of concerned district administrations during anti-encroachment operations.

The committee recommended to approach the provincial governments for support during such operations. The committee showed displeasure on the presence of some officers through video-link on zoom and directed their presence in person in next meetings.

The Inspector General of Police, Pakistan Railways, also briefed about issues of staff, equipment, salaries and packages of Railways Police. The committee recommended to perform its role to resolve those issues.

The committee extended the duration of sub-committee, which was constituted in the previous meeting of the standing committee to look into the matters of encroachments/lease of railways land under the convenership of Ramesh Lal, MNA, for thirty days.