Mumbai: Three months after the tragic death of 23 people in a stampede at Elphinstone bridge, one of the busiest railway stations in the city, the Army has unveiled a new foot over-bridge.
This bridge connects the north end of Parel to the flower market lane of the Elphinstone side of the station. It is primarily for the vendors and florists to have a shortcut and for people to get faster access to the Parel station, which is situated parallel to the Elphinstone Road station.
The station has a large number of vendors who travel with flowers on heavy baskets and luggage, leading to overcrowding. The bridge, built by the Army at a cost of Rs 8 crore, will be open to the public within a fortnight.
“We were given the responsibility of constructing the bridge on October 31. We had set aside two months for planning and one month for execution, soil testing and alignment. We started the work on December 10," said Brigadier Dhiraj Mohan, Commandant of the Bombay Engineer Group and Centre.
It is a 240-feet bridge which can carry 8 tonnes of weight and has a staircase on one side and ramp on another side.
Apart from this bridge, the western Railways is also constructing a 12-metre foot over-bridge at the same station, which will run parallel to the bridge where the stampede occurred. The second bridge is expected to be unveiled in April 2018.
The Army is building two more bridges in Currey Road and Ambivali stations. The announcement, made by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in October, was met with a lot of criticism, with many calling it a move that indicates state and civic agencies’ failure to build basic civic amenities. Many even called roping in Army to build a bridge as a dangerous precedent and insulting the armed forces.
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