The irony is that this land was retrieved by WR after a protracted fight lasting almost a decade, which involved private individuals — whom the railways labelled as encroachers and the state government.
In a stark reminder of how much encroachment of government land has increased in Mumbai, the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has written to the Western Railways (WR) to clear encroachers off a portion of a 43,000 sq m plot in Bandra east. This land has been put up for an 80-year lease by the RLDA the proceeds of which will be used to finance rail projects.
Speaking to DNA, Ravinder Bhakar confirmed the request of RLDA to clear some encroachers from the plot. "It was cleared to their satisfaction," Bhakar said. It's not the first time that the land is at the centre of an encroachment bid. DNA, in its February 11, 2015 edition, had published an article on how the plot of land had been neatly divided into farming plots by unknown people.
The irony is that this land was retrieved by WR after a protracted fight lasting almost a decade, which involved private individuals — whom the railways labelled as encroachers and the state government.
The fight for the plot started way back in September 2008, when the RLDA moved to auction the plot to garner revenue. Some private individuals and the state government's revenue department objected claiming that there was lack of clarity on the ownership of the land. The matter soon landed in court after the state claimed that the land belonged to it rather than the railways. The matter played out at the Suburban Collector's office and at the office of the Divisional Commissioner of Konkan before the state revenue minister gave his order in December 2012 adjudicating that the plot belonged to the railways. In November 2016, WR applied for a property card to the land.
The plot sale is crucial for the finance of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project's (MUPT) phase two work. Not being able to commercially exploit it will jeopardise several railway projects. Under railway rules, one-third of the proceeds will be used for a railway project in Mumbai, one-third for a railway project in Maharashtra and the rest for a railway project anywhere in India.
How railway land encroachment affects you
The railways require land for two purposes. One is to lay tracks and build stations and secondly to lease or sell -- if the plot is not required for operational purposes — and raise funds for projects. Encroachment of such land either hits projects directly — like how plans to make a grand Bandra terminus fizzled out as the adjoining shanty towns could never be removed — or indirectly such as the inability to raise finances from commercial development due to encroachments and subsequent litigation scaring off real estate firms.
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