The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is targeting September for the completion of a culvert near Arsalan restaurant on EM Bypass, between Ruby and Science City.

A senior official of the KMDA said the under-construction culvert on the Science City-bound flank will widen the narrow stretch of EM Bypass, which is much wider both to its back and front.

Vehicles coming from Ruby and headed towards Science City have to slow down as the stretch suddenly becomes narrow.

The culvert will be 24 metres or six-lanes wide. About 10 metres of the culvert will be carved out for service lanes.

Cars along the Science City bound flank have to slow down near Arsalan, the point of the bottleneck.

The KMDA official said that the stretch of the Bypass here is only 10 metres wide while the stretches of EM Bypass on its two sides are 24-metres wide.

Construction work for the culvert along the Bypass.

“Buses, cars and two- wheelers come via a 24-metre wide stretch and enter the 10-metre wide stretch. This naturally slows down traffic and gives rise to a queue of vehicles during peak hours,” said the official.

“Once the culvert is ready, the now narrow stretch will also become 24 metres wide. Besides, there will be 10 metre-wide service lane,” said the official.

“We are targeting to finish and throw open the culvert to traffic by September,” said the official.

The cost of the construction of the culvert is ₹16 crore, said the official.

The culvert is being built over a canal.

The work for construction of the culvert started in November 2022, but it could not gather pace immediately as high tension electric cables along the banks of the canal obstructed the construction of the culvert.

“We could start work in full force only after the cables were removed,” said an official.

Work on the canal could not be done during the four months of monsoon last year as the canal is one of several that drain out water from Calcutta. Any block on the canal because of construction of the culvert could have flooded parts of the city.

“The construction on the canal is almost complete and will finish by the end of this month. The remaining work will be above the canal at the level of the road. This
will not obstruct the flow of the canal and can be done in full swing even during the coming monsoon,” said the official.

The KMDA has in the last few years built culverts at Kalikapur and Bypass Dhaba, both of which were bottlenecks because the stretch was narrower than the stretches in front of and behind it.