The Army, which has been asked to construct foot overbridges at three railway stations in Mumbai in the aftermath of the stampede at the Elphinstone Road station, said it would help ease off only 20% of the footfall at these stations, The Indian Express reported on Friday.
Brigadier Dhiraj Mohan of the Bombay Engineer Group and Centre told the daily that these bridges will be built within three months and that these will be a temporary measure in view of the crisis-like situation in the city’s railways stations. The railways, he added, was already planning 12-metre-wide foot overbridges.
According to the Army official, the bridges will be 3.9-metres wide, 110-feet long and 7.5-metres high.
“We are going to make modular bridges, according to the standard protocol of how they are made in the Army,” said Brigadier Mohan. “They will be similar to the ones noticed in the hilly regions of the north like in the Himalayas. It will at least take 15 more days to finalise the design and begin construction.”
The decision taken by the Centre and the Maharashtra government to entrust the Army with the construction work was met with immense criticism.
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