Protesters clashed with police in Bandra's Garib Nagar during a demolition drive targeting illegal structures near the railway station. According to reports from FPJ, tension erupted on the second day of the ongoing demolition campaign after a mosque building was destroyed as part of Western Railway's anti-encroachment operation. When the mosque building was being demolished, locals reacted angrily and with outrage, with angry locals in Garib Nagar holding protests at the location while the drive was in progress. During the disturbance, locals reportedly flung buckets of water at Mumbai Police officers, leading to significant altercations between residents and police. The police responded with lathi charge to control the situation, as reported by NDTV Marathi.
The five-day campaign, according to Chief Public Relations Officer Vineet Abhishek, intends to liberate 5,300 square meters of land in order to remove the railway safety zone and enable upcoming capacity augmentation projects. As reported by NDTV Marathi, out of 500 illegal huts, 18% were cleared on the first day of the operation. The latest reports confirm that over 400 unauthorised structures are being demolished as part of the exercise, including multi-storey makeshift homes made of tin sheets and small commercial shops. The drive began after Western Railway (WR) was given permission by the Bombay High Court in an order dated May 5, with the court also stating that rights of slum inhabitants who qualified for the 2021 surveys had to be upheld.
Nearly 1,000 people have been sent to the site for the demolition effort, including about 400 Mumbai Police officers, 400 members of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF), and representatives from several railway ministries, according to reports. The drive began after WR was given permission to carry out the demolition campaign by the Bombay High Court in an order dated May 5. Throughout the demolition process, there has been significant police presence and increased security measures, with substantial police deployment maintaining order during the operation.
The US Embassy in India, located in Mumbai's Bandra, issued an advisory over Western Railway's demolition drive near Bandra station (May 19–23), warning of traffic congestion, delays, and possible protests, and advising its citizens to exercise caution and use alternate routes. The operation aims to clear around 5,200 square metres of prime railway land as part of a major transport redevelopment plan aimed at transforming Bandra East into a major multimodal transit hub. The project includes the construction of additional railway lines on the Santacruz–Mumbai Central corridor to ease congestion and launch approximately 50 new originating trains from the city.
