MUMBAI: In an anti-encroachment drive undertaken by Central Railway (CR), a total of 165 illegal hutments removed between Chunabhatti and Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar section of harbour line on Monday.
CR spokesperson said, “Around 140 small shops and 25 hutments were removed on CSMT-bound track with help of security staff.”
On Sunday too, encroachments were removed near Belapur on Harbour line and Ghansali on Trans Harbour (Thane-Panvel) corridor.
There are total of 24,500 unauthorised structures on railway land, spread across Western Railway and Central Railway’s Mumbai division. These illegal occupants have encroached nearly 57 hectares of land, including those in the safety zone as well the ones where future expansion projects are planned.
On CR, around 13,839 structures are occupying 37.29 hectares of land, with most in the Kurla, Mankhurd and Kurla-Trombay line.
On WR, the number of illegal structures stood at 10,572 structures and most numbers were found in Bandra-Khar belt.
Both Central Railway and Western Railway had taken steps to remove the encroachments, but the move at many places was stayed by the Bombay high court which asked them to collect and store details of the encroachers before taking any action.
The state government in April had asked the railways to initiate action to clear its land of encroachments and suggested setting up an SRA -like planning body but there has been no movement on this suggestion
The state has also insisted the project-affected persons should be provided in situ rehabilitation.
