About 1,700 shanties along railway tracks in Bandra West were demolished over the past two days by a builder for a slum rehabilitation project and high-rise towers.
The multi-storied slum pocket, called Shastri Nagar, had touched the boundary of platform 1 of Bandra station for the past several decades.
Early this week, bulldozers and cranes began pulling down the shanties and cleared a vast tract of land spread over 6 acres. The vacant plot will be used to build several towers to rehabilitate 1,400 eligible slum families. “The rehabilitation of the remaining 300 families has to be decided by the slum authority,” said Raja Rahebar Khan, former corporator from the area.
The developer, Pioneer, will also build a tower in the sale component. Additionally, an access road will be constructed providing direct connectivity from the west end of Bandra station to Western Express Highway.
The rehabilitation project had been stalled since 2002 and locals, along with Khan, had approached courts, seeking permission to renew their agreements under the new slum scheme that offered them more benefits.
The developer has been paying monthly rents to the eligible families for transit accommodation after they vacated their shanties.
Earlier, the slumdwellers had locked horns with the authorities over their rehabilitation after receiving multiple demolition notices from BMC to allow it to undertake road widening.
The slumdwellers had signed the agreement with the builder in 2002, but over the last two decades, govt has changed the eligibility criteria. After the residents approached courts—the issue went till SC—the builder accepted the demand to execute a fresh agreement as per the new rules.
