Question : ENCROACHMENT ON RAILWAY LAND



(a) the total land occupied by the Railways, the area lying vacant and encroached upon in the country, zone-wise;

(b) the loss suffered by Railways on account of encroachment;

(c) whether any mechanism exist to keep record of land including cases of encroachments and if so, the details thereof;

(d) the land retrieved by the Railways after removing encroachments during the last three years and the current year, zone and year-wise along with action taken against those who were involved in encroachment of Railway land; and

(e) the manner in which the vacant land is optimally utilized or proposed to be optimally utilized by the Railways to contain encroachment of the Railway land?

Answer given by the minister


MINISTER OF RAILWAYS (SHRI D.V. SADANANDA GOWDA)

(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION No. 144 BY DR. VIRENDRA KUMAR AND SHRIMATI BUTTA RENUKA TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 17.07.2014 REGARDING ENCROACHMENT ON RAILWAY LAND

(a) : As on 31.3.2013, the total area of land under Railway network is 457689 hectare out of which approx. 47336 hectare is vacant and 942 hectare is encroached. The vacant land is mostly in the form of narrow strips along tracks, which is required for servicing and maintenance of track and other infrastructure.

The details of total Railway land, area lying vacant and area encroached with zone-wise break up are as under:-

 Railway	Total land	Vacant land	Encroachment	occupied by	(in hectares)	(in hectares)	Railway	(in hectares) Central	28377	2719	59 Eastern	20950	1510	21 East Central	36299	4284	4 East Coast	13145	2232	18 Northern	41463	8319	215 North Central	17753	976	41 North Eastern	25644	5776	26 Northeast Frontier	44928	1114	160 North Western	24895	1706	18 Southern	26296	2651	62 South Central	32374	1349	12 South Eastern	42113	466	160 Southeast Central	21921	2979	43 South Western	17592	4131	16 Western	36646	6243	43 West Central	23256	476	41 Production unit	4037	405	3 Total	457689	47336	942 
(b): Encroachments cause bottlenecks & safety hazards in train operations and difficulties in track maintenance which at times affects the line capacity and the throughput.

(c) & (d): Complete Land records are maintained, updated regularly and verified from revenue authorities periodically. Survey of encroachments is also carried out periodically and the details of encroachments and their removal are recorded. Encroachers on railway land are dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971 (PPE Act, 1971) as amended from time to time. Actual eviction of unauthorized occupants is carried out with the assistance of State Government and police.

The details of land retrieved after removing encroachments during the last three years and the current year, zone-wise, are as under:-
 Railway	Area retrieved from encroachment (in Hectare)	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	(till May, 2014) Central	2.09	2.47	0	0 Eastern	0.12	0	0.03	0.03 East Central	0.69	0.08	0.21	0 East Coast	13.94	0	0	0 Northern	4.87	0.77	4.39	0 North Central	0.27	8.13	0.21	0.01 North Eastern	4.42	0	0.22	0.06 Northeast Frontier	6.22	1.04	13.04	0.10 North Western	0	0.79	0.57	0 Southern	0.04	0.26	0.03	0.40 South Central	1.18	0.52	0.25	0 South Eastern	1.51	1.46	0.91	0 Southeast Central	5.87	0.05	0	0 South Western	0	0	0	0.05 Western	0	5.31	1.07	0 West Central	0.07	0.18	3.62	0 TOTAL	41.29	21.06	24.55	0.65 
(e): The vacant railway land which exists in the form of narrow strip along track is used for servicing and maintenance of track, bridges and other railway infrastructure and is also utilized for execution of various infrastructural projects for meeting future growth need of Railways and include projects like doubling, traffic facilities, Rail Coach and Component factories, etc. The vacant land, which is not required by Railways for its immediate operational needs, is utilized for commercial development, wherever feasible, in order to mobilize additional financial resources through Rail Land Development Authority. Regular measures are taken to protect railway land from encroachment which include, licensing of land to Railway employees for grow more food (GMF) scheme etc., provision of boundary wall, tree plantation at vulnerable locations.

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