Indian Army to build foot-over bridge at Mumbai's Elphinstone Road station: Amarinder Singh, Omar Abdullah slam move

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the army will help build a new foot overbridge at the Elphinstone Road station by 31 January. He was speaking in the presence of Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal who were also visiting the station, where a deadly stampede took place last month. He added that the Army will also help in building foot overbridges at two other stations in Mumbai. Sitharaman said it was probably the “first time that the Army will come in to build in what could otherwise be called civil work”. The defence minister also said, “This is probably the first time we have asked the Army to come in to build what could otherwise be called a civil work, but Elphinstone tragedy was so big.” The involvement of the Army in bridge reconstuction work irked Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who shot off a tweet saying that Army must train for war and not be used for civilian work.

The @adgpi job is to train for war, not to be used for civilian works @nsitharaman ji. Don’t divert defence resources to civilian jobs(1/2).

— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) October 31, 2017

Singh was hardly the only person who took issue with army’s involvement as Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam questioned whether the army would next be called in to fill potholes.

The army was to be a measure of last resort to be called upon in extreme emergency. Now it seems like it’s the 1st number on the speed dial. https://t.co/9e9hJOgDTY

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) October 31, 2017

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted that it seemed like army is now the first number on speed dial for emergencies.

Calling Army to make a bridge in Mumbai underlines failure of Corrupt #ShivSenaBJP ruled #BMC.Hope army wl not b asked to fill potholes here https://t.co/BKj5nwoCBH

— Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) October 31, 2017

23 people were killed , and dozens injured after a stampede ensued on a foot-over bridge during the early morning rush at Elphinstone Road station in September. The tragedy took place amid rain in the city when the foot-over bridge was heavily crowded. Police suspect a short-circuit with a loud sound near the foot-over bridge led to panic and people started running, resulting in the stampede. After the stampede, 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.