Railways to provide over 45 acre for Dharavi redevelopment

26 Feb 2019 CW Team

In order to redevelop Asia’s largest slum, the Maharashtra Government will be reportedly taking over 45 acre of railway land in Central Mumbai on a lease for 99 years for Rs 38 billion.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal, reportedly, confirmed that the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) will be handing over 45 acre of surplus land to the Dharavi Development Authority (DDA) for the redevelopment of Dharavi. This decision is expected to transform the lives of Dharavi residents.

Reports suggest that such a move of the railways handing over its land for a project, which is to be executed by the state, is very rare. The estimated cost of the project at present is Rs 260 billion. The Western and Central Railways have two parcels of land abutting Dharavi-one, measuring 17 acre, while the second of 90 acre has godowns, a scarp yard and encroachments on it. The government is expected to sought the entire 107 acre to resettle shanty dwellers in transit camps during redevelopment, for which the railways has agreed to transfer 45 acre.

The deal was sealed after much bargaining as some railway officials had reportedly shown a lot of resistance as they feared it may cause allegations of graft. Besides, some of them reportedly said that surrendering land close to railway tracks may affect its future expansion plans.

The railways has reportedly sough an upfront payment of Rs 12 billion of the total Rs 38 billion, while the state was willing to pay Rs 8 billion. It was then settled at Rs 10 billion, of which Rs 8 billion is expected to be paid immediately with the remaining balance in the coming six months.

Of the remaining Rs 28 billion, Rs 25 billion is expected to come through profits generated from sale of surplus flats in the Dharavi project, while the remaining is expected to be adjusted against construction costs of 850 units of railway quarters on the same land.

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..