These hutments are the last obstacle to the six-line expansion of the Kurla-Thane railway line. Initially, 143 slum dwellers are to be shifted into the dwellings in a month's time to allow the laying down of tracks between Kurla and Bhandup.

The MUTP-II plan has pledged an approximately Rs 100 crore project to add two more lines to the four Kurla-Thane lines. This project is due for completion in 2001. Fourteen per cent of work on the Rs 49.84 crore first phase between Kurla and Bhandup has been completed.

Work began on the section earlierthis year leaving gaps in the slum-infested areas. ``All track construction materials have arrived, we are just waiting for the slums to be shifted,'' said CR spokesperson Mukul Marwah.

The task of shifting the slum dwellers and building the 10 by 12 dwellings has been given to the NGO Society for Preservation of Area Resources and Conservation (SPARC). The slum dwellers have paid up approximately Rs 5,000 per home. Although an earlier estimate pegged the number of settlers at Kanjurmarg at 1,500, revised estimates showed that the figure was 900 persons, said senior SRA officials.

Sixty four houses have been constructed at the 21,000 square metre plot at Kanjurmarg, and the tally of 900 will be completed within the next six months. The BMC is to clear town plans for this plot by next week.

The Railways have already pledged to pay Rs 1.38 crore for infrastructural development of the plot. The urban development department's Slum Resettlement Authority (SRA) is supervising the spending of this money.

TheCentral Railway is the hardest hit by rapidly proliferating slums on rail tracks, which have led to a sharp drop in train speeds, flooding on tracks and track maintainance. There are a staggering 25,135 hutments on CR rail lines. Of these, 12,700 are within the 10 metre safety zone on either side of the tracks.

Railway officials have stated that the success of this resettlement venture will determine the outcome of a CR proposal to relocate all the 25,000 hutments on its rail lines to railway land at Thakurli. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi chaired a high-level meeting to speed up the slum resettlement issue.

``The CM has decided that the Chief Secretary will personally co-ordinate plans for resettling over 1,100 slum dwellers who cannot be accommodated at Kanjurmarg," city BJP chief Kirit Somaiya stated. The state government had asked the collector, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and MHADA to scout for additional land to resettle the slum dwellers.