BMC frees Tansa of encroachments

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday removed 48 hutments and 12 stalls along the Tansa pipeline at Bandra (east) near the railway station.

According to civic officials, the BMC had received several complaints of unauthorised hutments having come up in Garib Nagar slums under the Bandra skywalk posing a threat to the Tansa main. The H-West ward office then carried out the demolition drive with the help of the police.

“About 30 labourers and six officials were deployed for the demolition drive. There was some opposition from the residents in the beginning, but later the drive went on smoothly. All the illegal structures near the pipeline were removed in the drive,” said H-East ward officer Prashant Gaikwad.

“We will also complete the process of deciding the eligibility of authorised slum dwellers in the ward around the Tansa mains by this month end,” he added.

The BMC in 2009 had received flak from the Bombay high court for its failure to protect the water pipelines from slum encroachments. The HC had asked the civic body to remove encroachments around pipelines saying they were posing threat to the security and also causing water contamination. Following this, the civic body had already removed encroachments near Tansa pipeline in G-north (Dharavi, Mahim) and S (Bhandup) ward in November 2011.

The hydraulic department, in a survey, had identified a total of 15,743 structures along the pipelines with as many as 6,573 having been built prior to 1995.

However, the demolition drive has been delayed owing to strong resistance from slum dwellers at other places and also corporators’ demand to extend the cut off date for providing alternative accommodation to these slum dwellers from the year 1995 to 2000.