00:00Cutting across more breaking news coming in, live pictures of demolition that is being carried out by the Western Railway.
00:06This is happening in Mumbai at Garib Nagar where 400 unauthorized structures are being demolished.
00:12Now according to the Western Railway, this demolition is according to the High Court order.
00:18However, the interest of slum dwellers have been identified as eligible from the first surveys dated 10th August 2021
00:26and the second survey that is dated 11th August 2021 must be adequately protected.
00:32Except for the legal 100 inhabitants, all others will face action.
00:37The legal inhabitants have been given accommodation as what they are claiming.
00:41The action will continue for the next four days.
00:43The freed up space will be used to facilitate 50 new originating trains from Mumbai and the expansion of Bandra
00:51terminus.
00:51The additional space will be used to connect Bandra suburban station to Bandra terminus and segregate suburban trains.
00:59We are staying with those pictures as I cut across to my colleague Mustafa joining us live with the sort
01:04of responses that are coming on the ground.
01:06And Mustafa, are there protests as is being claimed that the demolition is being carried as per the court order?
01:19Well, that's true and it's a very prime location.
01:22Just next to it is the Bandra railway station.
01:24And here the demolition drive which you can see has to be carried out for the next four days.
01:28So it's being said to be one of the biggest drives by the Western Railway.
01:3250 passenger trains have to be accommodated.
01:35Expansion is needed in Bandra area of Mumbai.
01:37This is Bandra.
01:38It used to be clogged with the slum dwellers.
01:41And now after going to a high court, the court has given this fight to those who were eligible since
01:472021.
01:47But after that, the new slums which have come up are being demolished.
01:50Police presence, as you can see, the zonal DCP is present here.
01:54And there is huge police presence to maintain the law and order situation in and around this area.
01:59And all these people who are staying here illegally have been asked to move out.
02:04And you can say that a big demolition on the other side of the bridge also.
02:09We will show you the visuals of how the crowd has gathered around here.
02:13Police presence remains.
02:14This is the crowd which has gathered around the area where this demolition is taking place.
02:18The police has maintained huge police presence so that no law and order situation arises in this area.
02:24They are saying that for long, this entire slum on the left-hand side, if the camera is spent, this
02:31is the railway station.
02:33We are standing on the railway bridge right now.
02:35So all the structures which have come near the railway has to go.
02:39The expansion of Bandra railway is very much important.
02:42And whatever space is created from here will be accommodated to use 50 new passenger railway trains.
02:49So that is the need of the hour and hence the Western railway has swung into action.
02:56They have asked for police support and they are demolishing this entire structure.
03:00Vinit Abhishek, who is the Western railway CPRO, is joining us.
03:03We are seeing a huge demolition taking place here.
03:06What is the background?
03:07What is the action Western railway is taking now?
03:09Yes.
03:10See, today's action and today's demolition drive that we are seeing has to be seen in a broader context.
03:16First, it is related to our railway safety.
03:23It is deeply embedded with our capacity augmentation initiatives.
03:28And it is also directly linked with overall our mission for a developed Bharat.
03:33The honourable Prime Minister has clearly mandated that we have to have, that we are on the verge of Viksit
03:45Bharat.
03:46And in that mission, the role of railway is of prime importance.
03:53Keeping that in mind, you see, today's action that we are undertaking is not new.
03:59The foundation of this action, the initiatives for this action has been going on for the last more than nine
04:05years.
04:06Way back in 2017, we were taking action to evict these entouchments.
04:13Finally, it reached in High Court, Honourable High Court in 2017.
04:17And finally, after multiple hearings, and having considered the viewpoints of all the parties,
04:27Honourable High Court has given a favourable judgment, which Honourable Supreme Court also made stand good.
04:35And that judgment specifically instructs us to evict and to demolish the illegal entouchments here.
04:46The judgment also clearly says that 100, 100 entouchments, the earmarked 100 entouchments should not be demolished, should not be
04:56touched.
04:56But beyond that, the remaining almost 500 entouchments, they need to be demolished immediately.
05:02And you see, this is very important from a wider context.
05:06As I already mentioned, in the last couple of months back, Honourable Rail Minister has mandated,
05:14has given us a target of running 50 extra mail express trains from Mumbai area of Western Railway.
05:21And if we have to achieve that target in the next couple of years,
05:24it is very important that we invest a lot in our capacity augmentation.
05:29Already, we have a new terminal coming up at Yogeshwari.
05:33We will start the construction of a new terminal at Vasai Road.
05:38And this area where we are currently standing, the Bandra area,
05:43the Bandra Terminus Station will undergo a major redevelopment.
05:47And the entire Bandra local station and the Bandra Terminus area will be developed in an integrated manner
05:54where we will have elevated roads, multi-throated buildings.
05:58And the overall capacity will increase many folds once this entire area is clear
06:04and we are able to execute the kind of project that we have in mind.
06:08You will enter the body of Gaia Road.
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