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Journalism of Courage
Railways, one of the biggest landlord after the municipal corporation in Mumbai, is facing a major encroachment problem. According to the data available with the Western Railway office, with over 10,000 instances of encroachment, land measuring over 2.73 lakh square metres owned by railways is currently encroached upon between Churchgate and Virar.
Sources say that projects under Mumbai Urban Transport (MUTP), worth over Rs 19,495 crore, have been impeded because of the encroachment.
While there are 1,495 instances (measuring up to 20,700 sq m) of soft encroachments and 8,511 instances (2,53,180 sq m) of hard encroachments, a senior official from WR, who did not wish to be named, said that lack of policy around compensation and rehabilitation of encroachers is hampering their various initiatives to remove the said encroachment.
The official said that as a result of these encroachments, projects amounting to over Rs 19,495 crore under MUTP have been impeded. Some of the key projects that have been impacted include the construction of 6th line between Mumbai Central and Borivali, amounting to Rs 918 crore (of which phase 1 is under progress); 5th& 6th line between Borivali and Virar; extension of harbour line from Goregaon to Borivali; 16 stabling lines on WR; seven stations improvement work and power supply augmentation among others.
Though the official agreed that not much has happened over the past 20 years on the capacity front to ease out the traffic and load on WR, he said that projects have been proposed and some are already in the construction stage but overcoming these constraints (encroachment) is a major challenge.
Major projects impeded:
6th line Mumbai Central to Borivali
Cost Rs 918 crore
Status: Work of Bandra Terminus to Borivali in Phase 1 in progress
Challenge: Structures very close to the line, two buildings impeding the alignment.
Quadrupling of Virar Dahanu Railway
Cost: Rs 3,587 crore
Status: Work of earthwork bridges in progress in unaffected length. 14 km length require mangrove cutting permission
5th-6th line Borivali-Virar
Cost: Rs 2,184 crore
Status: Estimates sanctioned, planning and tendering in process
Extension of Harbour Line from Goregaon to Borivali
Cost: Rs 826 crore
Status: Planning in process
16 stabling lines on WR
Cost: Rs 80 crore
Status: Planning in process
7 stations improvement
Khar, Santacruz, Kandivali, Mira Road, Bhayander, Vasai, Nalasopara
Cost: Rs 450 crore
Status: Work in progress at 3 stations and balance station tenders called
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