Railways has given more than 8,000 acres of vacant land for farming purpose under grow more food scheme.

The vacant railway land is given on license to railway employees working in Group C and D category under Grow More Food (GMF) scheme, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

According to railway policy, licensing of railway land to private parties for the purposes not connected with railway working is not permitted.

"Railways has given 8859.18 acres of land under grow more food scheme," he said adding "it helps preventing encroachment of vacant railway land."

There are about 930.75 hectares of railway land which is currently encroached upon including over 206 hectares of land is under illegal occupation in Northern Railway zone alone.

To outwit land encroachers, the Railways is now planning to lay new tracks on the extreme ends of existing lines.

This would effectively deal with the problem of land encroachment, a politically-sensitive issue in the country.

The construction of additional railway lines will be in Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Recently, the government announced projects worth Rs.24,000 crore comprising laying of new railway lines at various sections of the country's railway network spanning thousands of kilometres.

Railways has recently undertaken digitisation of records related to vacant plots owned by it across the country.

Land which is not required for operational purposes in the foreseeable future is being identified by all railways zones as vacant land, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Railways has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land which can be exploited commercially.

Besides, a web based application called Land Management Module integrated with Track Management System (TMS) Railways, has been developed, he added.

A pilot project of GIS mapping of railway network and land parcel has already been started on Delhi division of the Northern Railway.

After its successful implementation, the exercises will be extended to the entire Indian Railway network.

Railways require land for laying of tracks, construction of yards, station buildings, platforms, setting up of workshops, repair and maintenance facilities and housing colonies for its staff.

Land is also licensed for commercial purposes.