500 structures along rail track demolished

The railway authorities knocked down around 500 illegal structures in an eviction drive along the two-kilometre rail track between Khilgaon and Malibagh in the city yesterday.
The structures were demolished for safe operation of railway services, said Ahamadul Hoque, magistrate and divisional estate officer of the railway, who led the drive.
The railway authorities launched a fortnight-long drive to free the said stretch of the rail track on January 18 and have carried out several programmes to knock down several thousand illegal structures, he said.
Hoque said the drive will continue from Malibagh to Tongi.
Though, he said, makeshift slum houses were spared for a High Court stay order, a number of such structures fell under the railway bulldozer during the drive.
The railway authorities have carried out similar eviction drives many times, even in the said stretch, but the illegal occupants soon returned each time.