Elphinstone FOB to be ready by Jan 31
The minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal on Monday assured that the new bridge being constructed by the Indian Army at Elphinstone Road would be ready for public use before the deadline on January 31. This announcement was made by Goyal during his visit at stations to monitor the ongoing work of foot overbridge (FOB) at the station.
On Monday, Goyal visited the ongoing work at the station along with senior western, central railway officials and civic body officials. During his visit, Goyal said the FOB construction at Currey Road station has been delayed due to problems in land acquisition.
“There is a problem with acquisition of land on the west side of Currey Road station where a landing of FOB has been planned. The problem occurred as the owner of private land to be acquired was also denied by him. We are coordinating with the civic body officials for the process of land acquisition,” said Goyal.
Goyal also appreciated the Indian army workers and said that the work by the army would serve as an example for all 17 zones of the Indian Railways.
“The idea behind handing over the contract of constructing FOBs is to serve as an example to all the divisions of railways. Once the bridge is constructed, officials from 17 zones will pay a visit to the station and inculcate such speedy works in their respective divisions,” added Goyal.
Goyal also added that the railways is deprived of its own work force as against army which has its own expertise which would help in constructing a bridge within given deadline.
The army has planned to construct an additional FOB that is 10-metres-wide at Elphinstone Road station. This bridge would be constructed between the north FOB of Parel railway station and would lead to the flower market situated at Elphinstone Road side.
The audit of stations on both the central and western line has revealed several discrepancies and work has been initiated.
“We have provided barricades at bridges for crowd control at atleast nine stations on both the lines. We have also initiated platform expansion at several stations,” added Goyal.
At least, 372 escalators have been planned in Mumbai and at least a total of 3,000 escalators would be installed at railway stations in India. Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) would be installed at railway stations in a way that its footage could be viewed at the respective station master’s office, Rai way Protection Force and city police station.