It's been a difficult life. We lived under a constant fear of the next train

Slum resident, Leela Rajput

The project aims to improve the city's crumbling infrastructure with the construction of new bridges and links across the sea.

The authorities are also planning to lay more rail tracks to strengthen Bombay's suburban rail network.

New homes

For more than 30 years Leela Rajput has lived only five feet away from the railway tracks near Mahim railway station in central Bombay.

In about a week's time she will be shifting, with her husband and two children to Vashi - about 25 kms from Bombay.

Children living by the tracks were in constant peril

There, modest but fairly pleasant 225 sq feet apartments have been built in newly constructed high-rise buildings.

"It's been a difficult life. We lived under a constant fear of the next train. Every month there a couple of accidents. We used to lock the children inside before going out.

"Also there were no toilets or drinking water here," Mrs Rajput said, obviously looking forward to moving to the new flats specially built for those living by the rail tracks.

But there is also a tinge of sadness.

"After all, we have spent the best years of our lives here. I came here soon after my marriage. My children were born and brought up here. So many memories are attached to this place, " she says.

Bombay's lifeline

Regarded as the lifeline of the local transport system, the suburban rail network is used by nearly 6.5 million commuters everyday.

We have now decided to offer compensation to those who are being shifted to the newly constructed buildings

Urvinder Madan, project manager

But with Bombay adding about half a million people every year to its total population of 13 million, the existing infrastructure is under pressure.

Laying additional tracks and expanding stations were the only options for railway authorities looking to modernise the suburban network.

But that could not be done without resettling the nearly 20,000 families who had made the rail tracks and platforms their homes.

The resettlement programme got off on a sour note with railway authorities dispatching bulldozers in September to demolish homes alongside the rail tracks in some of the city's suburbs.

Two years

It led to protests and the forced eviction was stopped after the intervention of some politicians and non-government organisations (NGOs).

The network carries 6.5 million people daily

"We have now decided to offer monetary compensation as well to those who are being shifted to the newly constructed buildings," said Urvinder Madan, project manager of the Bombay urban transport project.

"This is being done because many of those who are being shifted will either have to lose their jobs, and find new ones near the place they are being shifted, or they will have to incur additional expenditure by way of travel," he said.

It will take about two years before all those living by the rail tracks are housed in their new flats.

But it is a rare example of the authorities and NGOs working together to improve the lives of the people living alongside the tracks.