Pune: The Army’s Bombay Engineer Group and Centre (BEG&C), Khadki, officials said that the three footover bridges (FOBs) being constructed in Mumbai will be complete and ready to use by the end of February.
The Army was entrusted with the construction after 23 commuters had died in a stampede on a footover bridge at Elphinstone Road railway station on September 29 last year. Later, the Army was asked to construct three footover bridges at Parel-Elphinstone Road, Currey Road and Ambivali railway stations in Mumbai.
Last week, BEG officials gave a presentation about the progress of the construction work of the three bridges. Army officials said that for every bridge, 50 soldiers led by a Major rank and two Junior Commissioned Officers were deployed.
Brigadier Dheeraj Mohan, the Commandant of BEG, said, “The bridge at the Elphinstone Road railway station is 80 per cent complete, while Ambivali railway station bridge is 90 per cent complete. The Currey Road overbridge work is 60 per cent complete. We will complete the work on all the bridges by the end of February.”
Talking about the challenges, Brig Mohan added, “It took some time for the Army and Railway officials to understand each other’s work procedures. There is also restricted space between the railway tracks besides heavy rail traffic, etc, at the stations. We have undertaken some innovative steps to complete the work in stipulated time.
