Assistant Municipal Commissioner, (encroachment department), Umashankar Mistry said that the district collector had served notice three months back to the occupants of these structures. “Since no action was taken on the notice, we demolished the structures on the request of the district collector,” he said. The demolition drive was led by Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Milind Shambharkar, including other civic officials and policemen.

Mistry said the structures belonged to local koli’s Paresh Dhabani, Krishna Kale and Prakash Dhamma.

He added that they were ground plus two structures in areas of 700 sq feet, 1000 sq feet and 4500 sq feet. “As the houses were in congested village, we faced some difficulty in demolition.