Trial over, VIP Rd near airport blocked for metro tunnel work
Times of India | 25 December 2024
1234 Kolkata: RVNL, the implementing agency of the 29km New Garia-Airport Metro corridor, was on Tuesday handed over a stretch of VIP Road near the airport to construct the Orange Line's underground tunnel there. The Bidhannagar Traffic Police gave the permission for the road block after a five-day trial.
TOI had reported that traffic police started the trial last Wednesday to check how well the new arrangement worked if Kolkata-bound vehicles were diverted through a new stretch, curved out on VIP Road by RVNL. Following the trial's success, Kolkata-bound vehicles started following the diversion, which will contiue for around three months, after which they will go back to using the earlier, straight path from the airport. The entire tunnel construction to the airport station would be over in nine months, sources said. Afcons is building the 300m ramp and 500m twin tunnels in cut-and-cover method.
"The traffic flow in the new road space has been smooth. Vehicles are taking the mandatory left turn and then, are being guided to curve further along a 20m-wide stretch. After a few metres, the road width narrows because the barricading for metro work has expanded at this point," a railway official said on behalf of railway PSU RVNL. The road broadens as it approaches Kaikhali, subsequently merging with the original Kolkata-bound flank of VIP Road.
RVNL had sought the current traffic rejig as work on Orange Line reached the turning point toward the airport. Using another traffic block granted by cops in April, the agency had completed the base, top slab and diaphragms of 72m of the underground tunnels along the VIP Road median. "With the construction now entering a crucial phase, RVNL asked Bidhannagar Police to reorganize the existing traffic block. It first created a compensatory road space," the railway official said.
RVNL has also got permission to start digging piles for the ongoing ramp construction, beyond Pier 846, where the viaduct should terminate. The barricading has been extended towards Kaikhali and the traffic signal post shifted by a few metres towards airport, beyond the Route 45 bus stand, for vehicles to U-turn.
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