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The Indian Railways will be taking it upon itself to help the Maharashtra state government build homes for the 12 lakh slum dwellers that currently live on land owned by the railways in Mumbai.

The official Twitter account of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, noted that this was a result of an agreement between the railways and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA).

State housing dept and @RailMinIndia to come together. SRA scheme to be made applicable to help 12 lakh slum dwellers of Mumbai — CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) April 18, 2017

The rehabilitation will take place across 78 hectares of the land owned by Indian Railways of which 37.2 hectares belongs to Central Railway and 41.2 hectares belongs to Western Railway.

For its part, the railways will ensure that it clears enough land for the successful implementation of the plan.

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Image for representation. Photo source: Wikimedia

One of the officials present at the meeting where the agreement was set spoke to Hindustan Times noting, “The rehabilitation of slum dwellers around the international airport on the land of the Airport Authority of India was done through a joint venture. The rehabilitation on railway land will also be undertaken in a similar fashion. The state government has been asked to submit a detailed proposal for approval by the railway board.”

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Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu as well as the chief minister of Maharashtra were among those at the meeting.

Recently it was reported that the Indian railways will be reviving 1,500 water bodies that exist in the premises of railway land across India that includes wells, ponds, dams, reservoirs, step wells and more.

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