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State Government | Maharashtra - India | PID: 172291
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The state government has proposed that slumdwellers on railway land be resettled under a separate Slum Rehabilitation Scheme to speed up railway projects that are pending for want of land
Railway minister Piyush Goyal met chief min ister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday to discuss the progress of various railway projects in the city and the rest of the state. In the meeting, it was decided that the government will look at a special slum rehabilitation project in order to free up heavily encroached railway land
There are around 12 lakh slum-dwellers spread across about 80 hectares of railway land in Mumbai. The encroached area, equivalent to nine Oval Maidans, belongs to both Western Railway and Central Railway. Of the area, over 37 hectares are on land belonging to Central Railway and the rest on land belonging to Western Railway
After his meeting with the railway minister, Fadnavis said, "There are huge slums on railway land. The railways needs land for projects. Local authorities regularly undertake demolition of these slums, but these come back. So, we are looking at rehabilitating them in situ wherever possible or close to the original site
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He said a meeting to finalize the policy will be conveyed soon. Sources said the policy will mention a datum line (a standard of comparison or point of reference) for the slums to be rehabilitated
Officials said that for slums on central government land, there are currently no rehabilitation schemes. A senior railway official said, "The law will have to be amended as right now the railways does not have any power or authority to execute such projects
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In the meeting, Fadnavis also demanded that the railways give its nod to the CST-Panvel elevated corridor project, develop new suburban corridors between Panvel and Virar, and extend the Harbour line from Goregaon to Borivli. "Projects that will ease crowding on local trains and also make commute comfortable were discussed. We will soon implement them," said railway minister Goyal
Fadnavis also demanded that high footfall stations like Lower Parel, Mira Road and Chembur be modernized
| Updated on: 13 - Jan - 2018
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