The work of constructing a pillar for the New Garia-airport Metro corridor right in the middle of the Chingrighata crossing on EM Bypass started on Thursday.
This was preceded by police handing the spot to the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), implementing agency of the project, after a trial to assess the impact of the blockade on traffic.
A team of workmen moved in with a piling machine and an excavator. The work site has been blocked with guard rails.
The construction of the pillar (number 318) was stuck in a logjam for a few years with the police and civic officials saying the traffic disruption on the busy corridor might not be manageable. “Officials of the RVNL have been asked to complete the work within 30 days,” said a senior police officer. “Chingrighata being one of the crucial intersections in the city, we have worked out a traffic management plan.”
Once the digging is over, piling work for preparing the underground foundation of the pillar will start, engineers at the site said. “This pillar is crucial because without it the gap between the pillars on either side would have increased from the stipulated 28 metres to 60 metres. That would have been dangerous for the curved viaduct,” said a senior RVNL official. The viaduct, which will be supported by the pillars and on which tracks will be laid, will take a curve from the Chingrighata intersection towards Salt Lake.
A temporary refuge island for pedestrians coming from Sukanta Nagar, which was created at the crossing with moveable barriers, has been done away with. Signage in black and yellow has been placed directing pedestrians to use the foot-over bridge near Jal Vayu Vihar.