The dismantling of the Tallah bridge began hours after it was closed to traffic on Friday midnight.

Drilling machines started digging up the bitumen layer of the road from the bridge’s Shyambazar-end and payloaders and trucks were kept ready to remove the debris.

The layer of bitumen will be scrapped off over the next few days before reaching the deck slab below. Once the deck slab is exposed, machines will start cutting through the concrete, a PWD engineer present at the site said.

It will take around three months to pull down the entire structure, the engineer said.

Road diversions came into effect on Saturday morning. On the first day traffic headed for the Lockgate flyover from Girish Avenue moved slowly, stopping occasionally on Cossipore Road to make way for vehicles moving in the opposite direction.

Police were deployed at various points on the stretch leading to Chitpore bridge from Galiff Street and Girish Avenue to help in the diversions. “It will take around a week for everyone to get used to the new diversion plan,” an officer of Shyambazar traffic guard said. “The first few days will be lessons for us as well.”

The real test will be from Monday when offices and schools will be fully functional, the police said. Vehicles will keep pouring on to Central Avenue from Cossipore Road and Belgachhia Road.

The road till the Tallah bridge from the BT Road-end was cut off near Paikpara where cops had placed crash barriers. Vehicles were sent to Raja Manindra Road to reach Belgachhia. Vehicles trying to reach the bridge from Shyambazar were diverted down Galiff Street.

“We hope the new bridge comes up soon,” Samiran Aich, a resident of Baranagar, who drove down to the heart of the city on Saturday, said.

Several people of the area walked down the 57-year-old bridge to reach either end.

It was easier than taking a bus, they said. A few youths chose the closed bridge to play football.