Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday said the army would build three footover bridges including the one at Elphinstone railway station where a stampede killed 23 people in September, sparking a political slugfest over the soldiers being used in civil works. The foot overbridges (FOBs) will be built on Elphinstone Road of Western Railway, and Currey Road and Ambivali stations of the Central Railway on the congested Mumbai suburban network.
“Given the army engineers’ expertise, they will construct the three foot overbridges by January 31. The army has been very helpful to not just us but the society at large and I am very thankful to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for this huge help to bring ease in Mumbaikars’ life,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the media.
Sitharaman said: “The Indian Army has always been steadfast in the provision of aid for disaster relief issues.”
Goyal said work on the bridges was expected to begin within 15 days, and in a later tweet, said it will be done by January 31, 2018.
Western Railway Divisional Railway Manager Mukul Jain had said that the Elphinstone Road bridge will be a new one, independent of the one being planned and constructed by the railways, and will be located towards the Parel side at the northern end of the Elphinstone Road station.
He said an army team will identify the spot, submit its design and plans to the railways before proceeding with the work.
According to Jain, this is the first time such a civilian contract would be handled by the army.
The development came a little over a month after 23 commuters were killed in a stampede on a narrow FOB connecting WR’s Elphinstone Road with Parel on Central Railway on September 29.
Sitharaman, Goyal, Fadnavis and other officials earlier on Tuesday surveyed the Elphinstone Road station to take stock of the improvement works in progress post-stampede.
The move to involve the army for urban civilian works in peace-time attracted strong criticism from opposition leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam, former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and a passengers body.
“The army job is to train for war, not to be used for civilian works Sitharamanji. — IANS
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