Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Just months after the tragic stampede at Mumbai’s Elphinstone railway station that claimed several lives and left many more injured, a new bridge constructed by the Indian Army was inaugurated in the city today.

The Army constructed three new foot over bridges – at Elphinstone station on Western Line, and at Ambivili and Currey Road stations on Central line – in record time of just 117 days following 29 September’s stampede in which 23 people had died and more than 30 had been injured.

Over 250 personnel of the Army’s Bombay Sappers engineers regiment based in Pune were deployed to compete this project, which cost the railways roughly Rs. 18 crores. The Elphinstone bridge itself is worth Rs. 10.44 crores.

These bridges were inaugurated for public use today in the presence of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union railway minister Piyush Goyal, Union minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar and other Railway officials. Interestingly, the bridges were inaugurated by common citizens like a lady passenger, a Dabbawalla and a flower vendor, instead of a VIP invitee.

Several political leaders and public officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lauded the Army for completing this project on time. Citizens of Mumbai were so grateful that their tribute to the soldiers in the form of a special hash tag, #MumbaiThanksArmy, became a long-lasting trend on Twitter and other social media websites.

By dhruv