255 rly families, green cover in Matunga to be bulldozed for Dharavi redevelopment

A high-level meeting on the issue was held by chairman of the Railway Land Development Authority, which is coordinating on behalf of Indian Railways

MUMBAI: A total of 255 railway employees’ families and substantial tree cover spread across six to seven acres will have to make way for the Adani Group-led Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRPPL). On Tuesday, a high-level meeting was held on the issue by Anil Kumar Khandelwal, the chairman of the Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA), which is coordinating on behalf of Indian Railways for the mega redevelopment of the Dharavi slums.

255 rly families, green cover in Matunga to be bulldozed for Dharavi redevelopment

Sources said that on March 22, the Western Railway (WR) administration issued a letter with the subject line ‘Discontinuing allotment of quarters in Mumbai area’, which stated that as per the agreement of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Slum Rehabilitation Authority and RLDA, a certain identified parcel of land in Dadar, Mahim and Matunga was to be redeveloped and handed over to DRP. The entire Matunga Road colony area is to be given to RLDA and DRP.

“Out of approximately 19 acres, 12 acres not affecting residential housing have already been handed over. There are 255 quarters still occupied and need to be vacated,” reads the railway letter.

On Tuesday at the high-level meeting, Railway Board officials also took stock of the DRP, the shifting of rail staff to other locations and the status of handing over 47.5 acres of rail land to DRPPL. Sources in the know of the development said that the rail employees staying in these quarters had already agreed to move.

The rail staff from Matunga Road colony will be shifted to vacant habitable quarters in Mumbai. The Matunga Road railway quarters, according to railway unions, has well over 500 trees and plants, which too will go due to the Dharavi redevelopment project.

“It is disheartening to see that the railway administration is pushing its own staff away from railway land for the development of a slum pocket,” said a railway employee and member of the railway union. “The staff and their families don’t even know whether the new quarters are in good condition.”

The unions are questioning the railway administration on why it is taking the initiative to clear the land when it has already been handed over for the Dharavi redevelopment project. “We have raised this issue of bulldozing railway staff quarters for a private project and will totally oppose it,” said Sharifkhan Pathan, President, Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh.

Praveen Bajpai, union leader from the Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh, said that they too would oppose the initiative to clear out rail quarters for a private project without providing alternative accommodation.