The Tallah bridge, a busy link between the city and the northern fringes, is too weak to take the load of even buses and light goods vehicles, a meeting at Nabanna concluded on Thursday.

Officials said chief minister Mamata Banerjee would take the final decision on whether buses would be completely barred from the 57-year-old structure.

A meeting to discuss the matter, to be attended by the chief minister, has been scheduled for Friday morning.

An official who attended Thursday’s meeting said the decision was to allow only light vehicles on the bridge.

The meeting was attended by PWD minister Aroop Biswas, urban development minister Firhad Hakim, chief secretary Moloy De, representatives of various state government departments, and engineers and officials from the highway division of the engineering consultancy RITES.

Sources at the meeting said the RITES team tabled a report that said the Tallah bridge was not even fit for pedestrians. Several strands of steel ducts that hold the deck of the bridge have snapped, prompting concerns of collapse among engineers.

The government had on September 20 announced that heavy goods vehicles would not be allowed on the bridge from the next day. The announcement followed an inspection that revealed the precarious state of the structure.

More inspections were conducted over the next few days by engineers and officials of RITES and the PWD.

“A ban on buses and all kinds of good vehicles will reduce the load on the bridge,” said an official who attended the meeting.

RITES, sources said, will conduct a load test of the bridge before Durga Puja. The earlier decision was to conduct it after Puja.

The test will help engineers ascertain how much load the bridge can endure, based on which the authorities can decide the nature of vehicles that can be allowed on it.

“If the load-bearing capacity is found too low, engineers can recommend complete shutdown of the bridge,” an official said.

“The RITES report says the bridge is not even fit for pedestrian movement. However, since this report was based on visual inspection, it was decided that the agency would conduct a detailed analysis of the structure and also perform a load test before we arrive at a decision,” the official said.

A report prepared by RITES and the PWD has suggested that only light vehicles should be allowed on the bridge for now. But sources at Nabanna said the final decision would be taken by the chief minister.

An official who was present at Thursday’s meeting said the RITES team was handed a drawing of the bridge that has all engineering details.

Police officers said diverting buses that now take the Tallah bridge to reach the Shyambazar five-point crossing from BT Road and vice-versa would trigger huge snarls in large parts of north and east Calcutta.

The police have withdrawn a four-hour window in the afternoon when trucks were allowed to enter city from BT Road. Officers said all trucks coming from the northern fringes of Calcutta are now entering the city via Vidyasagar Setu between 10pm and 6am. This is triggering a long queue of trucks and creating snarls on Kona Expressway.