The construction of a culvert over the canal running next to Arsalan on EM Bypass that was planned over five years back finally started this week, an official of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) said.
The 24metre-wide culvert would add six more lanes to the Bypass on this stretch.
The existing culvert, on which cars and vehicles run, is 10.5m-wide. Commuters headed to Tagore Park from Ruby have to cross this bottleneck.
A KMDA official said the width of the Bypass on both sides of the existing culvert is 35m. “Cars and buses coming from Ruby suddenly enter a bottleneck. After coming on a wide road, they come into a very narrow culvert. The new culvert will end the bottleneck,” said the official.
In the last fortnight, the width of the existing culvert has further shrunk because the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has blocked a portion for the construction of the New Garia-Airport Metro, said a police officer.
At present, barely two cars can pass together on the culvert. If a bus enters it, there is no space for even a small car beside it.
A KMDA official said the construction of the new culvert could not start earlier because of many difficulties. One of them was the removal of underwater electricity cables.
Over the last year, high-tension electricity cables running under the canal’s bed were removed to enable the construction. A state government undertaking had first bagged the job to build the culvert over the canal — called the intercepting canal — but they gave up the assignment because of multiple challenges, said the KMDA official.
“The culvert will be 34m-long and 24m-wide. It will start near the Arsalan eatery on EM Bypass on the southern side. On the northern side, it will end near Tagore Park crossing,” said the official.
“The culvert construction and work to improve the service roads on its two sides will together cost Rs 18 crore.”
The work will end only around March or April next year, said the official.
Metro construction
Vehicles headed towards Science City from Ruby are being diverted through the opposite flank — the Ruby-bound flank — on a small stretch, between Ruby and Tagore Park, in the morning. A police officer said they had carved out a portion of the Ruby-bound flank with metal barriers. This space is in addition to the 10.5m-wide culvert that exists.
“The volume of Science City-bound traffic is higher in the morning. Now Metro work has further reduced the culvert width so we had to make alternative arrangements,” the officer said.
Despite this, the volume of vehicles together with rain is triggering snarls, a commuter said.