After stampede, Govt ropes in Army to build Elphinstone footbridge

Mumbai: The Army will help build a new foot overbridge at the Elphinstone Road station, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday as Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal visited the station, where a deadly stampede took place in September. 

Fadnavis, who accompanied Defence minister Sitharaman and Railways Minister Goyal, said the Army will also help in building foot overbridges at two other stations in Mumbai. 

"We are taking the Army's help in building a new FOB at the Elphinstone Road station and at two other suburban train stations in Mumbai," Fadnavis told reporters at the venue.

"I have been informed that the work on these bridges will be completed by January 31," he said.

"Bridges to be built in with cooperation with Army at Elphinstone Road, Currey Road and Ambivali by 31st Jan 2018," Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Probably first time asked Army to come in to build what could otherwise be called civil work, but Elphinstone tragedy was so big."

Sitharaman added that a call was taken to cooperate seeing urgency of the matter as Army has its role at the borders.

23 people were killed in a stampede on the Elphinstone Road station foot overbridge in September. 

After the stampede on September 29, railway officials posted police personnel to manage the crowd on busy platforms, evicted hawkers from suburban train stations and started speeding up infrastructure projects on suburban network.