A stretch of EM Bypass, between the Metropolitan and Chingrighata crossings, is being widened to accommodate traffic as a portion of the road will be closed later this year for the construction of the New Garia-Airport Metro link.
The road will be closed to erect piers for the Metro viaduct that will take a curve from Chingrighata and move into Salt Lake from the Bypass.
It will move from east to west over the Bypass near the Metropolitan crossing and then move towards Sector V.
Three piers have to be built on the Bypass, said a senior engineer of the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
An engineer of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the custodian of the Bypass, said the KMDA had given permission to RVNL to cordon off the Bypass. An approval from the police will also be required, he said.
“We will approach the police for permission to cordon off the road after the Puja,” said the KMDA engineer.
The New Garia-Airport Metro will run along the eastern edge of the Bypass between Trinamul Bhavan in Topsia and the Metropolitan crossing.
The elevated tracks of the Metro will change sides — from east to west — a little north of the Metropolitan crossing. About 200 metres of the elevated tracks will run above the Bypass.
“We have to build three piers for the elevated tracks on the Bypass for which a portion of the road has to be cordoned off,” said the senior RVNL engineer.
The KMDA engineer said a 400-metre length of the road would have to be cordoned off for the construction of piers.
“A 9m-wide portion of the road will be cordoned off for a length of 400 metres,” said the engineer.
To accommodate traffic, the EM Bypass is being widened by 11 metres on its western side for a length of 500 metres between the Metropolitan crossing and the Chingrighata flyover.
The median divider separating the Chingrighata-bound flank and the Science City-bound flank may also have to be readjusted to ensure better traffic movement when the road is cordoned off, said the RVNL engineer.
The KMDA engineer said RVNL had told them that the road widening work would be over within a month.
An officer of the city police’s traffic department, however, said they would allow cordoning off the stretch of EM Bypass near the Metropolitan crossing only after the pier at Chingrighata crossing is complete.
The first phase of the New Garia-Airport Metro, between New Garia and Ruby, is supposed to be opened in October.
The second phase — between Ruby and Sector V — is likely to be completed by 2023, a senior official of the Metro Railway, had said earlier.