Relaid road, LED lights & desilting of sewer lines to revamp Bypass
Times of India | 27 August 2024
Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken up a comprehensive development plan for the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass (EMB). The entire 22 km-long road will be relaid and major sewer lines along it will be desilted.
The complete stretch of the EM Bypass from Ultadanga to Garia will be illuminated with warm white LED lights to increase visibility in fog conditions.Moreover, the parks department will plant saplings on the median verges on Bypass.
Municipal commissioner, Dhaval Jain, accompanied a team of senior civic engineers from the KMC headquarters to take a stock of the present condition of the Bypass last week. Later, he held a meeting with the director-generals of different KMC departments to chalk out a development plan for the arterial road.
According to a KMC roads department official, motorists and bikers may hope to enjoy a smooth ride on the Bypass as the civic body is carrying out smoothening of some of the undulated stretches of the road from Ruby traffic intersection to Dhalai bridge in Garia. Currently, work is underway between Baghajatin rail over bridge and Dhalai bridge.
After completion of the work, the civic body will take up the work on the stretch between Ruby intersection and Hiland Park, which being the most-affected portion may pose a challenge for the civic body.
The civic body will also take up measures to prevent waterlogging along vast stretches of the Bypass. At present, damaged sewer lines and lack of underground drainage lines lead to waterlogging.
An official of the KMC sewerage and drainage department said the special emphasis had been laid on a desilting drive along the hospitals located off the Bypass (from Mukundapur to New Garia) and near the newly-constructed metro stations on New Garia to Airport corridor. The KMC lighting department might need to procure 3,000 LED lights in the next few years for the entire Bypass stretch and install those in phases, said a civic official. Some stretches on the Bypass — from Metropolitan to Science City, Ruby to Kalikapur and parts of Patuli — turn vulnerable to accidents in winter due to reduced visibility caused by fog.
“These lights penetrate fog layer and thus offer better visibility than ordinary LED lights,” said a KMC official.