Pakistan Railways has sought time to review its right of way (RoW) policy for installing telecom infrastructure, especially optic fiber cable.
Well-placed sources told ProPakistani that a sideline meeting of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) working group on telecom was held on Thursday to review the RoW policies for the telecom sector aimed at facilitating the installation of telecom infrastructure, enhancing fiberization in the country and setting the foundation for future technologies adoption.
The meeting was attended among others by officials from the Railways Ministry, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.
Sources revealed that Railways has revoked its previous policy approved by the Federal Cabinet in 2022, and intends to increase the Annual rates as per previous approved rates of the Federal Government i.e. Rs. 30 per meter. However, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication pleaded that currently Public RoW is being charged at Rs. 30 per meter by various public organizations including National Highway Authority (NHA) and the same may be followed by Railways.
The Ministry further stated that RoW should not be treated as a revenue generation tool, but should be based on no profit no loss standard as per RoW Policy 2020.
Sources said that the Railways Ministry asked for more time to complete homework before reaching a conclusion. It was decided to meet again by the end of next week, to finalize the matter aimed at facilitating the telecom sector and increasing broadband proliferation which will ultimately lead to enhanced Digital Financial Sector Development which is the primary focus of the government.
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