Elphinstone foot bridge widening didn’t need any clearances from the top

NEW DELHI: It was sheer laxity on the part of local railway administration in executing the project for widening of rail foot-over-bridge at Elphinstone station sanctioned in 2016 which led to the death of 23 people in Mumbai.

There was no reason why a small project costing just about Rs 12 crore sanctioned in the 2016-17 budget could not be implemented in 18 months, that too at a time railways during the tenure of Suresh Parbhu had delegated the powers to general managers to take up such projects.

"The concerned GM was not even supposed to get approval of railway board of detailed estimates for this project," said a railway official.

When projects announced in the budget for doubling and tripling of railway tracks worth thousands of crores which require multiple clearances like that of the Niti Aayog and Cabinet had been awarded, why did the GM fail to execute this project, the official asked.

"Rail ministry can't chase every small project. Local rail administration has to take up the responsibility of execution," said another official, adding that railway bureaucracy is shying away in taking up responsibility and Elphinstone tragedy is a case in point.

TOI reported on Friday that widening of rail FoB at Elphinstone station was announced in last year's budget by Prabhu, but the transporter has failed to award the tender costing just Rs 11.86 even though almost 18 months have gone by since then.

The tragedy in Mumbai is yet another reflection of the fund crunch faced by railways and constraints of colonial-era rail bureaucracy which is poor in implementation but refuses to take up the challenge and resists any move to revamp it.

Even railway officers admit in private that top rail bureaucracy, unlike its other civil service counterparts like IAS, has repeatedly failed to stand up to pressure from the political leadership which results in announcements of new trains and projects on purely popular compulsions, ignoring commercial viability and knowing well that the infrastructure was under severe stress.

"Free and frank advice by top railways officials to ministers in the interest of railways is rare," said an official.