Come March, the city will flaunt its first flyover that in turn will end congestion on the 4km Golmuri-Burmamines road, which is currently a mishap magnet.
The over 250-metre-long flyover, connecting Hot Strip Mill (HSM) Gate of Tata Steel to Transport Park in Burmamines and being built by the company’s civic arm Jusco, is expected to be inaugurated during Founder’s Day celebrations in the first week of next month.
“Work on the double-lane elevated road, the first in the city, at HSM Gate is almost complete and will be inaugurated by Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran either on March 2 or March 3. The flyover will be used by heavy vehicles ferrying consignments to Tata Steel and will ease snarls on the artery connecting Golmuri and Burmamines,” said a senior company official, preferring anonymity.
The steel major is learnt to have apprised the East Singhbhum district administration that the elevated corridor will be made operational in March.
“Apart from that, work on two haul roads (used by heavy vehicles carrying industrial goods) connecting Govindpur to Burmamines via Nildih Main Road and Sitaramdera bus terminus to Burmamines truck park via Bhuiyandih will also commence soon,” said additional deputy commissioner Saurabh Kumar Sinha.
Construction of the Rs 35-crore flyover began in June 2016, a year after its foundation stone was laid by chief minister Raghubar Das, owing to delays caused by encroachment.
“The deadline for completion was 20 months, but there were also some procedural delays involving clearances from the government,” said an official associated with the project.
The elevated road with two lanes, each six metres wide, will boast double-armed light poles all along, said a senior official of Tata Steel’s engineering division that is overseeing construction work.
Once ready, the flyover will also reduce pressure of heavy vehicles on Kalimati Road, connecting Sakchi via Burmamines to Tatanagar, which according to conservative estimates witnesses one lakh trucks and trailers every day.
Traffic DSP Shivendra Kumar admitted that the stretch witnessed a huge volume of vehicles and the elevated road would curb chances of mishap. Not just heavy vehicles, the stretch also sees private town buses and autos ferrying commuters from Sakchi to Garabasa, Tuiladungri, Burmamines and Tatanagar.
“Vehicles to and from Tata Steel will use the flyover instead of Golmuri-Burmamines road, thereby decreasing the possibility of accidents,” DSP Kumar said.