Commuters queue up near the Elphinstone railway station foot overbridge, where a stampede killed 23 persons recently. PTI

Tribune News Service

Mumbai/New Delhi, October 31

The Army has been roped in to build foot overbridges at the Elphinstone road railway station in Mumbai where 23 persons were killed in a stampede a month ago.Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, along with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, visited the railway station with engineers from the Army this morning. Fadnavis said the new overbridge would be completed by January 31. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The Army would also build foot overbridges at the Currey Road and Ambivali railway stations, Fadnavis said. While Currey station lies in Mumbai city limits, Ambivali lies between Kalyan and Kasara on the outskirts of the city. Earlier, the Railways had floated a tender for the construction of a foot overbridge at Elphinstone station. However, Goyal was told that the new bridge would take a year to complete. “We have decided to take help of the military…  as there is an urgent need to complete the bridges at the earliest. The three stations have been identified as these witness a very high footfall,” Goyal said.Sitharaman said this was the first time that the Army had been called in for carrying out civil work in the country’s financial capital. “The Army conducted a feasibility study to assess whether it could complete the work or contribute to the process,” Sitharaman added.The move, meanwhile, has led to severe criticism.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, a 1965-war veteran, said “the Army’s job is to train for war and protect the country’s borders, not to build bridges and clean  roads”. He said there could be serious implications of such misuse of the armed forces by utilising their services for non-emergency civilian jobs.Urging Defence Minister Sitharaman to refrain from diverting critical defence resources to civilian works, he cited what he termed a mistake that Maj Gen BM Kaul, GOC of ‘Red Eagles’ 4th Division, had made before the 1962 war with China. The scandalous misuse by him of military manpower to build accommodation cost the Indian Army heavily during the Sino-Indian war, the Chief Minister said.The Defence Minister, instead of being party to this decision and announcing it with such pride, should have  rejected any such suggestion in the interest of the armed forces, Capt Amarinder said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the Army was supposed to be called in as a last resort at times of emergencies. “Now, it seems like it is the first number on speed dial,” he said. Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam said “calling in the Army to construct the bridges underlines the failure of BMC. Hope the Army will not be asked to fill potholes here”.