Anger over Army building bridge at Elphinstone station in Mumbai where stampede took place

Mumbai: Hours after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the Indian Army will help in the construction of a new foot overbridge at the Elphinstone Road station, several opposition leaders have spoken against the decision. 

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh asked Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman not to divert the attention of the forces. "The @adgpi job is to train for war, not to be used for civilian works @nsitharaman ji. Don’t divert defence resources to civilian jobs," he tweeted.

Not just the Punjab CM, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah also criticised the move. "The army was to be a measure of last resort to be called upon in extreme emergency. Now it seems like it’s the 1st number on the speed dial," he asked.

Taking a jibe at the decision, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said he hopes Army is not called in to fill potholes. "Calling Army to make a bridge in Mumbai underlines failure of Corrupt #ShivSenaBJP ruled #BMC.Hope army wl not b asked to fill potholes here," he tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi questioned the government for taking help of Army for civilian work and said: "Why should the army be brought in for civil works? Why should they bear the burden of Railway Minister's inefficiency? Ridiculous," she tweeted.

Several others on Twitter also disapproved of the Army being used for the construction of the bridge.

Not just the one at the Elphinstone Road, the Army will also help in building foot overbridges at two other stations in Mumbai. The work on these bridges will be completed by January 31. Fadnavis along with Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal visited the station where the deadly stampede took place last month in which 23 people were killed.

Sitharaman said it was probably the "first time we have asked the Army to come in to build what could otherwise be called a civil work, but Elphinstone tragedy was so big. A call was taken to cooperate seeing the urgency of the matter as the Army has its role at the borders. The Army has come and seen, inspected and assessed where the bridge is going to be built, they will be there at every stage of the work."

After the stampede on September 29, railway officials posted police personnel to manage the crowd on busy platforms, evicted hawkers from suburban train stations and started speeding up infrastructure projects on suburban network.

Goyal had earlier this month announced a slew of measures for the safety of commuters with a focus on foot overbridges (FOBs) in the country. He had said the FOBs would now be "mandatory" at all stations.