Portions of the incomplete Vivekananda Road flyover, a part of which crashed two years ago, will be pulled down as recommended by a committee set up by the state government after the collapse of the Majerhat bridge, officials said on Monday.

The committee has suggested that some vulnerable portions of the flyover — ones that are shorn of concrete casting — be pulled down as a short-term intervention to avert any accident. It has also recommended a detailed study of the health of the rest of the structure to decide on a long-term intervention.

The vulnerable sections will not be dismantled before next month, as the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is yet to float a tender to hire a contractor for the job.

“The dismantling will take about three weeks,” said an official of the CMDA, the custodian of the structure. “An expert committee on bridges has recommended that portions that have only the steel frame and don’t have the concrete casting above it should be pulled down.”

A 41m-long deck slab of the flyover under construction had collapsed on March 31, 2016, killing 26 people. The structure has since remained untouched as the government failed to decide whether to build the rest of the flyover or pull down the entire structure.

The state government had formed a team with engineers from IIT Kharagpur to study the health of the structure that still stands.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had in September last year said the IIT’s report was inconclusive. “The (IIT) report we have got says many houses will be damaged if we try to demolish the bridge. That’s risky. Nor have we got the clearance to build it anew. So, we are seeking the opinion of other experts,” she had said.

The CMDA official said that if the suggestions of the “expert committee”, which was formed after the collapse of the Majerhat bridge on September 4, 2018, were accepted, the steel frame of around a 250m-long stretch had to be pulled down.

The stretch is mostly over Strand Road and a portion of Vivekananda Road near Posta. “The expert committee fears the portions that do not have concrete casting are less stable. Their collapse can lead to a disaster,” the official said.

Copies of a notice issued by Posta police station, stating that the dismantling would start on Monday night, were distributed to the houses and shops along the length of the flyover earlier in the day.

The CMDA, however, told the police during a meeting at Lalbazar in the evening that the dismantling would start after at least a month.

“We have to float a tender. Prospective bidders usually get 21 days to respond. So, we would need nearly a month to select a contractor for the work,” a CMDA official said.

A civil engineer who had studied the structure on a request from the government last year had said: “A flyover in use undergoes regular maintenance. The part of the Vivekananda Road flyover that still stands has not undergone any maintenance for at least three years. This adds to deterioration of its condition.”

The flyover was being built under the CMDA’s supervision. A committee headed by the chief secretary assigned its responsibility to the PWD after the collapse.

The PWD had in May this year expressed its inability to maintain the flyover and asked the CMDA to take over the responsibility. The flyover’s upkeep was again handed to the CMDA.