Kolkata: The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) has started converting two more abandoned culverts located on EM Bypass into pedestrian subways. Officials said the two culverts, which have been abandoned for a long time, are located close to Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) and at Uttar Panchannagram crossing.
“The culverts will be thoroughly cleaned up, following which, cutting work will be taken up to develop a tunnel.This will be used by pedestrians to move freely and safely without having to walk through heavily congested roads. The work is expected to be completed by the middle of next year,” said a KMDA official.
Officials said the length of the underpasses will be around 50 feet and the width will be around 10 feet. The state govt had earlier granted KMDA around Rs 3.2 crore for the Uttar Panchannagram subway project and around Rs 3 crore for the subway plan near SRFTI.
“With pedestrian movement increasing manifold and thousands crossing the Bypass flanks, setting up these subways will help commuters in crossing busy intersections safely,” said a KMDA official.
Previously, KMDA had converted one such culvert at Kalikapur, which was also lying abandoned, into an underpass. At present, there are two pedestrian underpasses on the EM Bypass stretch — at Hyatt crossing and at Beleghata crossing close to Chingrighata. KMDA has been working on plans for a number of underpass and flyover projects on EM Bypass with the aim to decongest the busy corridor.
As for Ruby crossing, the state govt had earlier chalked out a plan to set up a skywalk to disperse the heavy pedestrian traffic. There are also plans to construct a foot overbridge at Dhapa crossing, a vehicular underpass at Captain Bheri and a pedestrian channel at Metropolitan crossing. “The plan is to come up with a proper multi-level traffic dispersal system on the EM Bypass stretch, specially close to and at the upcoming metro station sites as there would be huge inflow of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic once the metro starts full-fledged operations,” said an official.