The immediate provocation is the impending monsoon, when house collapses usually render scores of people homeless. The board, whose 46 transit camps in Mumbai have been usurped by at least 2,000 families residing there illegally, has evicted about 500 families since last week in accordance with a detailed action plan drawn up for the purpose. About 900 families reside illegally in the Goregaon camp alone, while most of the other encroachers live in six other transit camps (see box).

Encroachers manage to push their way in by paying hefty brokerage to agents working in connivance with board officials. This illegal gratification amounts to about Rs 50,000 for a single room.

However, the drive has already encountered opposition from at least one minister, whohas orally instructed the board to spare the Vikhroli-Bhandup camp, a senior board official told Express Newsline. The board has referred the matter to Chief Minister Manohar Joshi but has not received a reply yet. The race for space will become even more intense once the state government starts reconstruction of chawls following the Sukhtankar Committee recommendations.

MRRB Chairperson Madhu Chavan says the eviction drive will continue through the monsoon and will be followed up by routine checks. The space crunch has hurt even more ever since the Board had to allot more than 2,000 tenements to families under the Slum Redevelopment scheme. ``The board has only 1,500 tenements to spare, of which 1,000 will have to be reserved to accommodate people dishoused by building collapses during the monsoon,'' Chavan says. The board accommodates families from both municipal and private buildings even though it is not obliged to, he adds.

The board is sagging under the weight of losses amounting to crores of rupeesdue to irregularities in rent collection as canny brokers manage to protect encroachers from eviction, Board officials say.

Last year, the Board had to resort to a rent collection drive to recover dues, netting Rs 188.03 crore of the Rs 243.61 crore due to it. Each tenement is rented out for Rs 80 while a self-contained tenement costs between Rs 80 and Rs 100.