Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai
Mumbai, May 21: Tension gripped Mumbai’s Bandra East area on Wednesday after a demolition drive at the Garib Nagar slum cluster turned violent, with residents pelting stones at officials and police personnel carrying out the anti-encroachment operation.
Police resorted to a lathi charge to disperse the crowd, and several persons were detained following the clashes.
The demolition drive, being undertaken by Western Railway, targets more than 400 unauthorised structures, including an illegal religious structure, built on railway land near Bandra East station. The action follows directions issued by the Bombay High Court and is expected to continue for the next two days.
Emotional scenes were witnessed throughout the day as bulldozers razed homes in the densely populated settlement. Families watched in distress as their houses were demolished, while women and children pleaded with officials amid uncertainty over their future.
According to Western Railway officials, only around 100 residents identified as eligible during surveys conducted in August 2021 qualify for rehabilitation and alternative accommodation. The remaining occupants are considered encroachers on railway land.
A senior journalist familiar with Mumbai’s transport and infrastructure sector said the eviction, though painful, was linked to long-pending railway expansion plans.
“These slums existed for decades, but the structures being demolished now are mostly multi-storey constructions on railway property. Generations lived there, but legally they are treated as encroachments,” he said.
The land being cleared stretches across nearly 500 metres along the railway tracks and is expected to be used for the expansion of the fifth and sixth railway lines on the Santacruz–Mumbai Central corridor.
Officials said the project would help decongest Mumbai’s suburban railway network, facilitate around 50 new originating trains, improve connectivity between Bandra station and Bandra Terminus, and separate suburban and long-distance rail operations.
The railway expansion is also linked to broader infrastructure development projects in Mumbai, including redevelopment initiatives around Bandra Kurla Complex and connectivity improvements related to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train corridor.
Authorities maintained that the demolition drive was necessary for railway safety, citing risks posed by encroachments and waste dumping near tracks. The Bombay High Court, while permitting the action, had also directed authorities to ensure protection and rehabilitation for eligible slum residents.
The demolition has once again brought focus on Mumbai’s longstanding housing crisis, where a large section of the population continues to live in informal settlements even as the city undergoes rapid infrastructure transformation.