Railways demarcate land with wires

Mumbai: The railways have begun the process of placing barbed wire on both Central and Western lines from Thursday. The wire has been placed at Dadar, Parel, Currey Road on the Central line and Borivali and Kandivali on the Western line.

This is being done to demarcate Railway and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) land, so as to identify where encroachments and hawkers were taking place. The issue cropped up after MNS workers physically assaulted hawkers outside railway stations like Kalyan, Thane and Dombivali.  An official from Western Railway said that it was then decided that the railway land would be demarcated with barbed wire, so that any encroachment or hawking on their end could be easily identified and dealt with. He added,  “We have identified around 17 kms of land from Borivali to Kandivali and have begun to install barbed wire on the border of our land.”

Meanwhile, Central Railway (CR) has almost finished laying the barbed wire in and around stations like Dadar, Parel, Currey Road, Thane and Airoli. According to a CR official, “The wires are being placed for now but we are thinking of bringing about something even more sturdy in a few months as people might cut these wires.”

The railways and the BMC have also held the first round of monthly meetings to sort out co-ordination issues.