The Kalighat skywalk is unlikely to meet the December deadline but engineers of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) are trying to start the casting of its deck before Kali Puja.
Senior engineers of the CMC said that the most difficult phase of the project has been completed and they were eyeing an early 2024 finish.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee raised the issue of the delay of the project while inaugurating a Durga puja in the area earlier this month. She had told Debashis Kumar, the MLA of Rashbehari and a mayoral council member of the CMC, to see that the project was not delayed any further.
Kumar, who was present during the puja inauguration, said on Monday that most of the hurdles have been overcome and work was on in full swing now.
“The work had to be stopped during Durga Puja and will be stopped again during Kali Puja on some stretches since a lot of devotees visit the Kali temple during these times. We are working accordingly,” he told Metro.
The 430m-long skywalk between the SP Mukherjee Road-Kali Temple Road crossing and the Kalighat temple will be similar to the skywalk in Dakshineswar. It will enable devotees and visitors to walk through the elevated corridor and reach the Kalighat temple avoiding the crowded road below.
The elevated skywalk will end just outside the gate of the temple. A 30m-long arm will branch off the skywalk in front of Kalighat police station and touch the road below at Kalighat fire station.
The skywalk will be 10.5m wide. Unlike the skywalk in Dakshineswar, there are no plans yet to have stalls on it.
“There were many challenges in the project. The contractor had some financial issues, the place remains congested most of the day and we could only work for a few hours every day. Piling and making the underground foundation was full of challenges because of the utilities,” said an engineer.
The construction started in October 2021 and the initial deadline was April 2023. Since the work did not progress as planned, the deadline was deferred to December 2023. But even that will be missed.
“We have set an early 2024 target,” an engineer said.
“Before Durga Puja, we had to build a road through the space under the portals of the skywalk so that people could go to the temple and two Durga Puja pandals along the project site. Continuing with the construction with people moving below would have been fraught with risks. So work was suspended during the Puja,” the engineer said.
“A Kali Puja pandal is now being set up along the project site and work will be delayed again on that stretch,” said the engineer.
There will be nearly 50 portals, goal post-like structures on which the deck of the skywalk will rest. CMC engineers said 33 portals have already been constructed.
“We are trying to start casting the deck on the stretch where portals have been built before Kali Puja,” the engineer said.
Erection of long beams, cross beams, deck sheet, deck and the overhead shed are still left. The initial project cost was Rs 77 crore.
The contract for the project was awarded before the outbreak of Covid, but the pandemic delayed the start of work. “The project cost is set to increase as the price of raw materials have risen since the contract was awarded,” an engineer said.