India, June 17 -- While the anti-encroachment drive at Garib Nagar in Bandra last month grabbed the headlines, it was one of several such operations undertaken by railway authorities across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in recent months to free up land for long-delayed infrastructure projects.

Since December last year, Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) have reclaimed nearly 15,000 square metres (3.5 acres) of encroached land-roughly the size of two football fields-across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) that had been illegally occupied for decades. According to officials, more than 1,200 project-affected persons (PAPs) have been displaced as a result of these drives.

Railway officials said recovering these large t...