PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa revenue and estate department on Wednesday launched the land record computerisation project in the provincial capital.

Revenue and estate minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur launched the project by opening the first digitised service delivery centre at the Government Printing Press on Pajjagi Road here.

He said the computerisation of land records was initiated in Mardan in March this year as a pilot project and that the initiative would be replicated all through the province by 2017.

The minister said work on the project was underway at fast pace in six districts of the province and was likely to be completed next year.

He said the computerisation of land records would be completed in the remaining 12 districts by 2017.

Gandapur said the process to settle land disputes was underway in the remaining six districts.

He said maintenance of the records manually had eroded the people`s confidenceintherevenue department and therefore, the record computerisation initiative was taken to restore their confidence.

The minister said patwaris couldn`t temper with the computerised land records.

He said his department was planning to have the geographical information system as well as the onewindow operations.

Gandapur said the record computerisation would cost Rs4.5 billion.

`The computerisation of revenue records in the entire province is a tough job but despite all hurdles, we (government) are committed to doing it during our tenure in office,` he said.

The minister said the Pakistan Railways should recover its land from encroachers af ter his department had computerised its land records.

Subhanullah, senior revenue consultant at the project management unit of the land records computerisation project, told Dawn that in the first phase, seven districts from every division, including Mardan, Abbottabad, Peshawar, Buner, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu, were selected for the computerisation of land records.

He said the project would be completed in seven districts by June 2016 and in 12 other districts by 2017.

The consultant said the `land settlement process` was currently underway in Chitral and would be executed in other districts in future.

Mohammad Kashif, assistant manager (outsourcing) of the company executing the project, said 70 percent of the computerisation of land records in Peshawar was complete, while the rest would be over soon.

He said the revenue department would open four service delivery centres in the provincial capital.

`Another centre is ready for the opening at the deputy commissioner`s offices,` he said.

The official said all four centres of Peshawar were likely to be functional by Feb next year.

He said there were 193 revenue estates in Peshawar and that the records of 184 of them had been computerised.

Mr Kashif said the Pajjagi Road centre had been put up at a cost of Rs7.5 million and that it was ready to offer services.

He said the centre would be managed by revenue officers and aided by a qanungo and 10 other staff members, including computers operators.

The official said the centre would serve three people at a time.

`The people will get a token after paying Rs250 fee and get copies of transfers and fards (copy of rights) at the same time.

However, they will have to go to banks for the transfer of property as it entails the payment of tax liabilities,` he said.

Mr Kashif said the transfer of property would take around 15 days.