Railways floats tender for new bridge

New Delhi: Shortly after the collapse of a foot-over bridge (FOB) led to the death of 22 people in Mumbai, the Railways on Friday floated a tender for an FOB at the Elphinstone station in the city to replace the existing decades-old bridge, which apparently gave way due to heavy rains.

A senior railway ministry official, who confirmed that the tender was floated on Friday, said that the FOB would cost arou-nd Rs 9.5 crore. He expres-sed confidence that it wou-ld be open by next year.

The budget for the new 40-feet-wide FOB was announced in the 2016 Railway Budget. It was a part of the Rs 45-crore budget earmarked for escalators, foot-over bridges (FOBs) and automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) for the local trains in Mumbai.

A project under which escalators would be installed at 12 locations in six stations and FOBs would be constructed at Bhayander, Elphinstone Road, Kandivli, Khar and Virar stations is already being implemented.

In a huge mishap, 22 persons were killed and over 30 injured in the rush hour when the FOB collapsed at the Elphinstone station.

The collapse is among a series of accidents which have plagued the Railways over the last one year. The large number of mishaps had led to former railway minister Suresh Prabhu offering to resign and subsequently being replaced by the Piyush Goyal.