Dismantling a portion of the old Belghoria Expressway over BT Road is set to resume after more than five months, a development that will pave the way for work to start on a stretch of the Noapara-Dakshineswar Metro, officials said.

This was the last stretch of the 3.78km Metro project, which ran into several land logjams and has missed a number of deadlines, where work is yet to start.

Railway officials said they were planning to run trains between Noapara and Dakshineswar by March 2020.

Although a relatively short stretch, the project promises to change the commute for tens of thousands of people. It will benefit not only residents along the stretch but also those living in places across the Hooghly, such as Bally, Uttarpara and Rishra.

A 150m stretch of the expressway that was no longer in use had to be pulled down to make room for a viaduct on which the tracks for the Metro project would be laid.

Around 100m of the span had been razed when work had to be stopped in September 2018 for “some urgent repairs” on a flyover in Dunlop 100m away.

The decision to carry out the repairs was taken after a public works department team, which was inspecting all flyovers and bridges following the collapse of the Majerhat bridge on September 4, detected some problems in its bearings.

“Two projects (dismantling a part of the old expressway and the repairs) 100m apart would have caused an unmanageable traffic congestion. So, the state government wanted the dismantling to be suspended,” an official said.

The Telegraph

Railway officials had said in the last week of February that the government had allowed them to start dismantling the remaining 50m stretch of the old expressway.

The Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), implementing agency for the Noapara-Dakshineswar project, has been told to execute the dismantling work between 11pm and 5am.

RVNL will get 80 days to raze the span.

“Preparatory work for the dismantling has started. Iron beams have been erected to support the spans. Height barriers are also being put up to restrict the movement of big vehicles,” an RVNL official said.

Steel ropes fitted with diamonds will be used to break the spans. “The steel in the rope is twice as strong as normal steel... Cranes, which are already in place, will lift the concrete chunks and remove them,” another official said.

“The last land-related hurdle in the way of the Noapara-Dakshineswar project is being removed,” said Rajesh Prasad, executive director of RVNL in Calcutta.

“We are planning to commission the project by March 2020. Tenders for signalling, telecom and electrical work and for laying the tracks have been issued,” he added.

The rakes of the existing north-south Metro will be used on the new line.

The original project cost of Rs 465 crore, sanctioned in 2010-11, is likely to increase because of the delay, officials said.