After five days of successful trials, the traffic department of Kolkata Police granted permission to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the implementing agency of the 32km New Garia-Airport corridor, to block traffic at Chingrihata crossing for 75 days starting from February 28. The traffic block is for the construction of Pier 319 of the New Garia-Airport Metro line via New Town.
Prior to granting permission, trial runs were conducted at the crossing from Thursday till Monday to allow the police to understand how vehicle flow would be affected when the pillar construction begins. Through the trial period, Salt Lake Bypass was closed to New Town-bound cars, which were directed through the service road in front of Jal Vayu Vihar instead.
P. Uday Kumar Reddy, general manager, Metro Railway has instructed RVNL officials to complete the construction of the pier within the deadline. RVNL, he has assured, would take all possible safety measures while executing the job. With this permission, a big stumbling block that had been delaying this project has been removed, officials said.