An expert committee of IIT Kharagpur has suggested construction of two flyovers over the busy Chingrighata intersection on the EM Bypass in east Kolkata.
The existing two-lane right turn flyover from EM Bypass towards Nicco Park will have to be replaced and reconstructed and another left-turn flyover will have to be built that will bring vehicles coming from Sector V and Salt Lake to EM Bypass over Chingrighata, the expert committee has recommended to the urban development ministry.
The Chingrighata crossing on EM Bypass — where roads from Sector V, Beleghata and Chaulpatti meet — is one of the busiest intersections on the 29-km stretch.
Following a spate of accidents the last few years, the state government has engaged experts from the IIT Kharagpur to suggest ways to reduce traffic load and bring down accidents at this key crossing.
Constructing two flyovers are a part of the latest recommendations of the expert committee that has been studying the traffic pattern, vehicular load and the future challenges around Chingrighata for sometime now.
“After studying the traffic pattern and the challenges at the Chingrighata crossing, we have recommended construction of the two flyovers,” said Bhagrab Maitra, a professor of civil engineering department of IIT Kharagpur.
“The left-turn flyover has been recommended considering the expected growth of the traffic reaching EM Bypass from Nicco Park-end over the next few years,” Maitra added.
The recommendation of the experts from Kharagpur suggest that the new left-turn flyover over Chingrighata should originate from a point further left of the existing one and land around the same place on the Salt Lake Bypass near Sukantanagar.
The recommendations on the left-turn flyover are based on three observations:
• The point where the Salt Lake Bypass meets EM Bypass is curved and narrow at the mouth
• At peak hours, vehicles from the Salt Lake Bypass moving in three lanes come and merge with that of EM Bypass, which too moves in three lanes
• As vehicle-count continues to grow over the years, there is no scope of creating new facilities — owing to land and other constraints — to ensure smooth drain out of the vehicles coming from Nicco Park-end.
The recommendations for both flyovers have been put forth considering two aspects — the proposed New-Garia-Airport Metro link and the state-government proposal to build a 7.1-km flyover connecting EM Bypass to Biswa Bangla gate in New Town.