Commuters had to walk several kilometres from Bally to board a bus on Thursday when work on the Dakshineswar-Bally Ghat flank of the Bally bridge (Vivekananda Setu) began and buses were routed through Nivedita Setu.

A section of daily commuters clashed with police after they were prevented from scaling wired fencing to reach National Highway 19 for their onward journey from Bally Halt station.

Beginning early Thursday, the Bally bridge will remain closed for 100 hours till 4am on January 27 to dismantle some rusted and worn-out iron girders.

With public outrage over the inability to access the national highway from the railway station, a portion of the boundary wall that separates Bally Halt station and the highway had to be broken down to allow commuters to access the main road and
take buses.

Since several suburban trains have been cancelled for the repair work that the railway has undertaken on the Bally bridge, a significant number of daily commuters had to depend on buses for their day’s commute.

The makeshift access to the national highway from the railway station came to their rescue later in the day.

“I had to walk for close to an hour from the Bally khal to reach the toll tax on Nivedita Setu to get a bus,” said a resident of Serampore. “The government should have planned properly before taking up such repairs.”

Several complained that since buses were diverted along Nivedita Setu, the next stop was nearly 3km away at Rajchandrapur, a distance they had to walk from Bally Halt to board a bus.

“Temporary bus stops should have been set up,” said a commuter.

Apart from the Bally bridge, Bally Ghat-Bally Halt Road under the bridge has also been closed for 100 hours from Thursday to facilitate the repair.

Along with these, the Dakshineswar-Airport flank of the Belgharia expressway was closed to vehicular traffic for 12 hours from 8pm on Thursday.