The Southern Railway and Railway Protection Force on Thursday put off a drive against encroachments along the railway track at Washermanpet owing to opposition from families living there.
Officials and RPF personnel assembled around 9 a.m. to remove the encroachments close to the tracks between Washermanpet and Vyasarpadi stations for a distance of over 600 metres.
However, a section of residents protested attempts to evict them from the spot as they were not being provided an alternative.
Further, they were not given prior notice to leave their homes, they said.
To seek help
Following this, officials decided to postpone the drive. They said they will meet officials of other State government agencies and seek their help before resuming the eviction drive.
According to officials, they had been asking over 350 families living along the track for over one year to leave.
There are railway lines used by suburban trains in addition to long distance trains passing through Chennai Beach from southern Tamil Nadu. They said there was a lot of damage to the embankments, resulting in ballast (stones on which they railway sleepers are laid) sliding down.
Trains were being operated at a restricted speed and there was primarily a danger to train operations, they said.
Staff were unable to carry out track maintenance work on this stretch, officials added.
0 Comments