Commuters crossing Nicco Park today or tomorrow are advised to keep some extra time in hand as traffic is being diverted there due to work on the Metro Railway.

Under the station near Nicco Park, on the flank headed towards Chingrihata, the right-most lane has been closed since Sunday as part of a seven-day trial. This is for work on the 29km New Garia-Airport Metro line, which will meet the East-West Metro’s terminal station opposite Wipro, and then continue across New Town, VIP Road, and finally the airport.

There are discontinuities on both sides of the IT Centre station — 25m on the Gariahat side and 40m on the airport side. “If the traffic management is successful during the trial period, we can start work. Getting that stretch will take a minimum of two months,” a senior Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) official told The Telegraph Salt Lake.

“The police may ask us to work on one side at a time or both sides together, as it suits them. The road to the Garia end, for which the traffic trial is now being held, will require a 16m slab and a 9m slab while the airport side will require two 16m slabs and a 9m one to connect the viaduct to the station,” said the official.

Roadblocks have been lifted for cars entering Salt Lake Bypass from Chingrihata.

A traffic police officer said vehicular flow has been smooth in the first three days of trial. “We started on Sunday but in effect, the trial was from Monday when the volume increased. We have demarcated a lane from the EM Bypass-bound road and switched it for the use of airport-bound traffic to compensate for the space for the airport-bound vehicles that is blocked. The Nicco Park crossing has high traffic volume as cars are coming from Salt Lake via the bridge. But we are managing well,” the officer said. He could not specify when the construction will start. “Let Metro write to us first with
their requirements and plans,” he added.

The Metro marshals and traffic cops posted at the site said no major problems had occurred in the first days of the trial.

Metro by year-end

The RVNL official hopes that work will be completed “within the calendar year”. “Our target is to commission the route by December up to Sector V. East West Metro is also under pressure to finish its Sealdah-to-Esplanade segment around the same time so that the entire segment can be opened to the public together,” he said.

The officer pointed out that while East West Metro has just the Bowbazar stretch left to tackle, which has been delayed by subsidence, RVNL has work left on a few stretches — Metropolitan, Chingrihata crossing, Dhapa lockgate, and in front of Nicco Park. “As for the part over the bheri by the Bypass, we have acquired five or six houses that were in the way. Some had come up on vested land. One house was demolished. Another block of flats was acquired on compensation. There is no obstruction anymore.” Tracks will be laid once the gaps are filled.

The bheri will be returned to its former state as part of the East Calcutta Wetlands but for the piers standing in the middle of the water for which piling has been done on the bed of the waterbody, he said.

Chingrihata blockade lifted

The Metro line has marshals, civic policemen as well as traffic policemen posted and all said the worst bottleneck on the stretch is at Chingrihata. “The traffic lights on the Bypass turn green for very short intervals, allowing only a few Salt Lake cars to pass through. This causes congestion and a pile-up behind. Traffic around Nicco Park is usually manageable, so we don’t expect significant issues. But we can only be confident after a full week,” said a traffic policeman at Nicco Park.

Chingrihata itself had a road block earlier this year, due to work on Metro pier no. 319. This construction took place at the right turn from the Bypass into Salt Lake, near the Jal Vayu Vihar complex. The Kolkata Police traffic department had granted RVNL permission to block traffic there for 75 days, starting on February 28.

“The road blockade here was removed last month and traffic has got smoother,” said a policeman on duty at the traffic guard there. While work was on, the flank of the Salt Lake Bypass going towards Nicco Park from the Bypass was shut. Cars were having to take the narrow parallel stretch in front of Jal Vayu Vihar instead.

Drivers at the auto stand at the mouth of Chingihata say they were in fact better off while the road was blocked. “We were the only vehicles allowed here from the Nicco Park end,” said Kartik Das, a driver on the Chingrihata-SDF building route. “As for the Nicco Park diversion, we haven’t been impacted yet. We are hoping it doesn’t lead to congestion in the coming weeks.”

Write to saltlake@abp.in