Elphinstone & Currey Rd station FOBs to miss Jan 31 deadline

The foot over-bridges (FOB) being constructed by the Army at the Elphinstone Road and Currey Road railway stations will miss the January 31 deadline due to some technical issues, railway officials said today.

It may take another fortnight to complete the FOB construction work at these two stations, they said.

"The construction of the Elphinstone station bridge may get delayed by a fortnight. The Army has sought a railway block for the launch of the girder on the bridge," the senior Western Railway (WR) official said.

"We have given our go-ahead for the railway block at the end of this month," he said.

According to the official, after the railway block gets over, it will take another 15 days for the Army to complete the construction of the bridge or may take some more days.

However, the Army engineers at the Elphinstone Road station bridge site refused to comment on the revised deadline.

Talking about the Currey Road station FOB, a senior Central Railway official said that due to the delay in the acquisition of private land the Army may miss the deadline there.

However, the FOB being constructed by the Army at Ambivili station on the CR will be completed within the stipulated time-frame.

"There was a delay in the acquisition of a private land at Currey Road station that caused a little bit of delay. But the work at Ambivili station has been going as per the plan. We are very much hopeful that it (Ambivili FOB) will be open for use by January 31," the CR official said.

A stampede on a narrow foot over-bridge linking Parel and Elphinstone Road suburban train stations had left 23 dead and many more injured on September 29 last year.

Over a month after the tragedy, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal along with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced that Indian Army will construct one railway bridge each at Elphinstone Road, Currey Road and Ambivili stations by January 31, 2018.