Central railways

Central line

dabbawalas

एल्फिन्स्टन रोड में भारतीय सेना द्वारा निर्मित पैदल ऊपरी पुल का आज श्री पीयूष गोयल, माननीय रेल मंत्री, श्री देवेन्… https://t.co/fIBYBhadIU — Western Railway (@WesternRly) 1519700835000

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

In perhaps a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Elphinstone Road foot-over-bridge (FOB) stampede last year, both Western andhave ditched the VVIPs and picked common folks to inaugurate three FOBs today.Two FOBs will be inaugurated on the– Ambivali near Kalyan and at Currey Road – while the third, Elphinstone Road, will be thrown open to public on the Western line.The Elphinstone Road overbridge will be inaugurated by a flower vendor, whose identity was not disclosed by Western Railway bosses till late evening. With the presence of a flower market on its western side, the FOB is widely used by flower vendors. Also, among the victims of the stampede in September last year was a pre-teen son of a flower vendor.The Currey Road FOB will be opened to public by dabbawalas, as much a Mumbai motif as the city’s suburban trains themselves. The fivewho will do the honours are – Babban Walunj, 70; Sopan More, 68; Yamunaji Ghule, 65; Ulhas Mukhe, 40; and Subhash Talekar, 48.Ambivali over-bridge will be inaugurated by some women passengers, whose identities were also not revealed by the Central Railway officials till late on Monday.All three inaugurations will take place simultaneously at 3.30 pm. Thoughwill be joined by Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre andat Elphinstone Road, they all will take the back seat and let the flower vendor declare the FOB open to public. The other two inaugurations will beamed live to Elphinstone via a video link.All three FOBs have been built by the Army. Soldiers were roped in for raising new over-bridges after the Elphinstone stampede that left 23 people dead. Some of these projects were languishing for years because of various reasons. The army built them in record time.