With the Indian Army’s construction wing Bombay Engineering Group (BEG) have launched the 240 feet-long Foot Over Bridge (FOB) connecting Parel and Elphinstone Railway stations early on Sunday, the much-needed FOB will be operational by mid-February.
Having begun the construction of the FoB on December 10-more than nine weeks after a massive stampede on a foot over bridge connecting Parel and Elphinstone Railway stations claimed 23 lives and left 38 other commuters injured, the BEG personnel launched entire the 240 ft long and 12 ft-wide FoB fully at 2.40 am on Sunday.
“We are trying to stick to the two months’ deadline to make the FOB operational. In the normal course, we expect the FOB operational by mid February or even earlier. We are left with the work of constructing a staircase at the Elphinstone Road end and landing platform at the Parel end which we expect to complete it in the next 10 to 15 days,” Brigadier Dhiraj Mohan, Commandant of BEG told The Pioneer here.
“It is a matter of pride and honour that we were assigned the task of constructing three FOBs, one each at Elphinstone Road, Currey Road, both in Mumbai, and at Ambivali and neighbouring Thane. We launched bridge Ambivli FOB and we expect it to be operational by January 31 or early February,” Brig Mohan said.
“Being part of the Bombay Sappers ( as BEG is known), we owe it to the people of Mumbai. That’s why we are striving hard to accomplish the task assigned to us in a record time. We could have begun the construction work earlier than December 10. But the land and alignment issues relating to the Railway came in the way,” Brig Mohan said.
According to Brig Mohan, the BEG has used prefabricated bridge parts of the length of 10 ft each with props to take the load. As in the case of two other FOBs, the BEG obtained the material for the Elphinstone Road-Parel bridge from a war store on the India-China border, located very close to Doklam.
While the BEG launched two stretches ( 100-long feet) of the Elphinstone Road-Parel bridge on Saturday, the third stretch of remaining 100 ft long bridge was launched in the early hours of Sunday.
On September 29, 2017, 23 commuters were killed and at least 3 others injured in a massive stampede that took place on a narrow FoB connecting the Parel and Elphinstone Railway stations in south-central Mumbai.
On October 31, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the Indian Army would help the Railways build three new FOBs-one each at Elphinstone Road, Currey Road, both in Mumbai, and at Ambivali and neighbouring Thane district.
In an announcement made after visiting the Elhphinstone Road station along with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Sitharaman said that the Army and its construction wing BEG had happily agreed to undertake the work of construction of three bridges, as part of its role in the nation building process.
“Whenever a natural disaster takes place, the Army reaches the site immediately and provides relief swiftly to people in a perfect and professional manner. This will probably be for the first time that the Army is coming in to build bridges what is otherwise essentially a civil work.
But, the tragedy at the Elphinstone Road was such a big one considering that it happened in Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai, which gives jobs to so many people from all over the country and the city is constantly under civic stress, I had requested the Army if it can undertake the work without affecting its other work relating to preparedness for all emergencies and exigencies. It was so nice of the Army chief and MES to come back to me to say that they have also a role to play in nation building and that they would be happy to participate in this,” Sitharaman had said.