IN A FIRST, ARMY TO BUILD FOOT OVERBRIDGES AT MUMBAI STATIONS

MUMBAI: Just over a month after a stampede at the Elphinstone Road station killed 23 people, the Bjp-led government enlisted the Indian Army’s help to build a foot overbridge (FOB) at the location.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, railways minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the station on Tuesday morning before announcing that the army would also build FOBS at Currey Road and Ambivli stations. The prefabricated structures will be built within three months to ease pressure on commuters.

This is the first time the defence ministry will help with civil work in the city. The bridges will be a temporary solution paid for by the railways, even as it undertakes widening and other upgradation work in the area.

The Opposition, however, attacked the government over the decision.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh took to Twitter to say the army was being summoned to build an FOB in Mumbai, one of the biggest cities, when the country was facing threats from both China and Pakistan.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya said, “I won’t comment on whether army should or not do this work. But Elphinstone FOB is with railways. BMC has never been asked by Railways to do it.” The Central Railways, in a series of tweets, defended the move, pointing to other examples of army assistance for civil work.