Giant VIP Road signage hurdle for New Garia-Airport Metro ramp construction
Times of India | 21 May 2024
Kolkata: The giant hoarding across the width of VIP Road has come in the way of constructing the ramp for the New Garia-Airport metro. Cops are unable to hand over the entire site required for the ramp because vehicles speeding down from the airport and diverted through the new road on the eastern flank would hit straight into one of the signboard’s piers.
PWD is the custodian of VIP Road and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) is the implementing agency of the 29km New Garia-Airport corridor, also called the Orange line.Several meetings between the two agencies notwithstanding, one of the piers of the giant hoarding continues to hamper progress of the Metro corridor, especially at a time when Metro Railway is eyeing to start operations between the airport and VIP Road station at Haldiram crossing. PWD has agreed to dismantle the hoarding and build a new one. Instead of supporting the board on two piers, it has agreed to reconstruct a new one with a ‘Y’ shaped pier on the median just after Kaikhali crossing. “But no work on removing the hoarding has started yet,” rued a Railways engineer.
The site for the ramp construction was handed over to the Metro authorities on April 26. An 11m wide road space was created on the eastern flank for VIP Road-bound vehicles to be diverted. On Monday, contractors Afcons started piling work for the ramp.
“Instead of four rows of piling, it’s only possible to build two rows of piling because only around 60% of the site has been made available, so only partial construction can be done” the Railways official said.
For full-fledged ramp construction, RVNL needs a 14m wide area, but has NOC to barricade 8m. “Once the hoarding pier is out of the way, another 6m will be cordoned off and cars can be diverted properly through the new road space,” an official said. Asked to comment, a PWD engineer said, “The matter will be addressed after the elections.”