MUMBAI, March 29 -- The demolition of half-a-century-old Laxmi Niwas, one of the two oldest chawls required for the Sewri-Worli Elevated Corridor, began on Friday, marking the end of an era in Prabhadevi's changing skyline. By next week, Haji Noorani Chawl, its neighbour, will also be brought down. For decades, these low-rise structures stood witness to Elphinstone Road's transformation into Prabhadevi; from a mill district to a forest of glass towers. Now dwarfed by skyscrapers, they are making way for the infrastructure that will define the city's next chapter. The Elphinstone bridge, a relic of the British era, was shut to traffic on the night of September 12, 2025. On the same day, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, who also chairs the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), announced that 83 families from Laxmi Niwas and Haji Noorani Chawl would be relocated to Mhada flats nearby. But the road to demolition was anything but smooth. For nearly a year, residents resisted eviction, even blocking attempts by MMRDA to shut the bridge in April 2025. What followed was a prolonged standoff, negotiations, protests, and eventual acceptance, culminating in the bridge's closure in September. Originally, MMRDA had planned to acquire 19 buildings around Elphinstone Road station for the project's pillars. A redesign in late 2024 scaled this down drastically to just two structures- Laxmi Niwas and Haji Noorani Chawl - slashing rehabilitation costs from Rs.5,200 crore to Rs.110 crore. The number of project-affected families was correspondingly reduced to 83; 60 from Laxmi Niwas and 23 from Haji Noorani Chawl. On Friday, as the first blows of demolition began, residents returned for one last look. Among them was Arun Mishra, a second-floor resident, who arrived with scrap dealers to salvage what he could from a home built over decades. "It breaks my heart," he said, pausing amid the dust and debris. "We renovated this place with care. I had put in expensive tiles, now all of it will be reduced to rubble." He recalled how, during the pandemic, he almost bought the adjacent room in the three-storey building. "The deal fell through for just Rs.2,000," he said with a faint smile. "Otherwise, that would have been mine too." Now living in a nearby building, Mishra is among six families who chose monetary compensation over relocation. He declined to reveal the amount, only noting that it fell short of market value. "The alternative homes were too far," he added curtly. As labourers stripped the building of wood, iron, and other salvageable materials, the rhythm of demolition set in. "It will take about 13 to 15 days to bring it down completely," said a worker on site. Haji Noorani Chawl will follow soon after. A few families are yet to vacate, but once they do, demolition will begin there as well. Both structures are crucial for constructing pillars of the double-decker Sewri-Worli Elevated Corridor. MMRDA has set a deadline of December 2026 for completing this 4.5-km stretch, which aims to dramatically improve east-west connectivity by linking the Bandra-Worli Sea Link with the Atal Setu at a cost of Rs.1,051.86 crore....