For once, the Indian Railways went against the political pressure and demolished encroachments along the rail lines which otherwise form vote banks for political parties. For instance, the Western Railway removed a massive 1,642 encroachments in the last two years after carrying out 94 demolition drives on both sides of the rail tracks and rail land.
The Western Railways has identified 11,517 encroachments on their land that include 6,209 encroachers along the Churchgate-Virar stretch and the remaining 5,308 inside the Railway Colonies.
One of the most affected projects is the fifth and sixth rail lines on Mumbai Central – Borivali stretch that have been going on since 2008. Sources said that in April, out of the 600 plus encroachments identified for this Rs 930 crore project, they have provided rehabilitation to around 230 or so. This comes at a time when encroachers also came up to the WR authorities demanding rehabilitation in the same locality from where they are being removed.
“In the last two financial years total of 94 demolition drives were carried out with the removal of a total of 1,642 encroachments. In the current financial year, 10 demolition drives have already been carried out with the removal of a total of 564 encroachments,” explained a senior WR official on condition of anonymity.
In the year 2020-21, the WR authorities removed 604 encroachments by undertaking 32 demolition drives. The number of demolition drives almost doubled with 62 being carried out from which they managed to remove 1038 encroachers in 2021-22. The railways categorize encroachments as ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ wherein it depends on the structure.
The railway officials agreed that never before have they been so aggressive in removing unauthorized settlements from railway land in the last so many years now. Last year, the Supreme Court slammed the Indian Railways for not taking action against unauthorized settlements.
Meanwhile in February this year, the Western Railway authorities decided to acquire 444 sq meters of land in Vile Parle and Borivali after demolishing more than 10-12 structures. Sources said that despite demolition being carried out, work got delayed but earlier last week they finally started the process of carrying out earthwork on the Borivali-Khar stretch for the 6th line.
This Rs 930 crore is part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP-2) that was proposed way back in 2008-09 or so when the initial cost was Rs 430 crore.
The rehabilitation and resettlement of landholders shall be done through Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The slum dwellers residing in these unauthorized structures claim that they were given only seven days to vacate.
The 5-6 lines on the Mumbai Central-Borivali stretch are meant to segregate the long-distance trains from suburban trains. The 5th line is partially laid between Santacruz-Borivali and Mumbai Central-Mahim stretches and work on the remaining portion is underway. The 5th and 6th rail lines between Mumbai Central and Borivali stations have been stuck for a long time.
