Indian Railways used to build war tanks, now Army returns the favour

While decision to get the army to build bridges in Mumbai has sparked a row there was a time when roles were reversedIt was the end of an illustrious legacy yesterday Once the Indian Railways used to manufacture war tanks hand grenades shells etc in its workshops Yesterdays decision by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal turned the tradition around The Armys help has been sought to finish railways job building three foot overbridges one each at Elphinstone Road Currey Road and Ambivli stationsOne FOB will come up at Currey RoadThe Indian Railways has a glorious history of manufacturing sturdy war material at short notice that was used in World Wars and battles with China and Pakistan The workshops of the old Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway now Western Railway at Dahod and Lower Parel used to manufacture war material which is now on display at the Churchgate heritage galleryThe armoured train manufactured by Western Railway formerly called the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway at National Railway Museum in DelhiYesterday it was Indian Armys Military Engineering Services MES that took charge of the extensive meetings with officials of the Central and Western Railway teams to finalise the locations of the three foot overbridgesEarlier during a visit to Elphinstone station a month after the stampede Goyal accompanied by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other top officials had surveyed the accident site and announced the decisionFinishing the jobGiving details of the locations of the bridges Chief Public Relations Officer CR Sunil Udasi said that at Elphinstone Road the existing Dadarend bridge at Parel station would be extended towards the IndiaBulls side while at Currey Road the new bridge would link the east and the west but the location would be finalised in a day as the landing was on BMC land At Ambivli the bridge would come up at the Igatpurui end with landings in east and west and also on both the platforms he addedRetired Colonel John DSouza however wasnt pleasedSuch a task is not meant for a soldier These are the civilian administrations responsibilities The army should not be called upon for such duties because it amounts to frittering away of their resources There is plenty of scope for employing these resources for development in border areas he saidFormer member of the National Railway Users Consultative Committee Subhash Gupta said this was a slap on the face of railway engineers by their own minister Because the local officials did not hear commuters complaints and ignored their demands it came to this The minister wants to show that no one is indispensablehellip he has belittled his own team Gupta addedArmys proposalDefence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman said that when BJP president Ashish Shelar approached them for help she was curious to know the armys viewpoint Mumbai is always under so much of pressure and whenever there is a disaster the army always runs to help This is probably the first time that it will be doing civil work she addedI am thankful that the army said yes They said they were keen to be a part of nationbuilding after all Mumbai is a key city that provides jobs to so many peopleAfter the proposal was mooted on October 6 teams from MES headquartered in Pune studied the issue and also went to a few stations to assess if work could be done They then came up with a proposal for three stationsIn war Corps of Engineers provides mobility to its forces by constructing bridges tracks and helipads and operates major military engineering organisations in the countryMeanwhile Shiv Sena which has been targeting the BJP lobbed another one at it The local MPs were not even informed or told about the visit Elphinstone Road should have got the same attention when two MPs an MLA and a former mayor from Sena raised the issue said local MP Arvind Sawant