A small accident would lead to a catastrophe,” Kurla East residents warn about the freight line that transports highly inflammable cargo, pointing to the hundreds of slums and shops built dangerously close to the tracks. Central Railway, on a complaint last year, had asked the slum dwellers to prove their legal residency, but nothing happened after that, residents said.
 
An office-bearer of Jaago Nehru Nagar Residents Welfare Association, a local NGO, said they write to Central Railway every year about the dangers. This year, too, they sent a letter last month. When they wrote last year, CR issued notices to every slum dweller in the area, asking them to prove they have been residing there legally, he added. However, the process has been moving at a snail’s pace.

“We have been appealing every year. After our appeals last year, notices were issued to the slum dwellers and they were asked to submit documents, but after that, the process of eviction has slowed down. We are meeting railway officials, again and again, to get the process expedited,” he added. The railways use a single, bi-directional electric line for freight trains transporting highly inflammable and explosive cargo like LPG, crude oil, and chemicals from the refineries and power plants.