Kalighat skywalk gets finishing touches ahead of Feb opening
Times of India | 4 January 2025
123 Kolkata: The KMC is adding finishing touches to the Kalighat skywalk ahead of its inauguration, scheduled in the first week of Feb. The civic body is also busy wrapping up the Kalighat temple restoration project so that the two projects can be inaugurated simultaneously.
A senior KMC official said the construction of the skywalk was complete and that the structure was ready for use. "The structure is ready for use. We have asked the construction firm to check all details and take care of the lighting system before the structure is officially opened to the public," the official said. One end of the skywalk starts on Syama Prasad Mukherjee Road—right opposite the Greek Orthodox Church—and the other end is at the entrance to the Kalighat temple complex.
"Following a hint from chief minister Mamata Banerjee about the skywalk's inauguration during her recent Digha visit, we are mobilising our resources for the structure's opening in the first week of Feb," said the official.
At the moment, KMC is completing a mural on the skywalk that artists are creating in the style of Kalighat Patachitra. Civic officials associated with the project said as the authorities were keen on displaying the Kalighat Patachitra, the construction firm has been instructed to ensure the mural installation is finished by mid-Jan. Kalighat Patachitra or Kalighat painting is a traditional Indian art form, the origin of which can be traced back to the early 19th century. Artists, primarily from the patua community, created these works of art, painting them on scrolls of paper and using materials from vegetable, earth, and mineral sources. Themed on mythology, religion and social affairs, the scroll artists would display them and narrate their stories to pilgrims and devotees visiting the Kalighat temple.
At the same time, civic officials are also wrapping up the infrastructure revamp work, a part of the Kalighat temple beautification project. The aim is to complete the two projects around the same time so that visitors can access them together. "As far as the beautification of the Kalighat temple is concerned, we need to improve the condition of a road linking Kalighat Bridge and the temple," said a KMC official.
The civic official pointed out that they also needed to rehabilitate hawkers, who were relocated for the skywalk's construction. "Our primary focus now is to shift hawkers in the Kalighat Hawkers Market from Jatin Das Park at the Hazra crossing, where they were temporarily accommodated to facilitate the skywalk construction. Some hawkers, who did business on the pavement along the road below the skywalk, need to be rehabilitated as well," said the civic official.
CM Banerjee, along with mayor Firhad Hakim, had visited the Kalighat temple in April last year to offer pujas when she had asked the civic brass to wrap up the construction at the earliest. The CM had also addressed the issue of hawker rehabilitation in the Kalighat temple complex, stating this would be done once the work for the skywalk was completed.
Kali Temple Road, Sadananda Road and Gurupada Halder Road are among the roads in the vicinity of the temple that the civic body has reconstructed. In Dec 2023, the state had approved Rs 5.3 crore for the reconstruction of roads and pavements. The state had sanctioned Rs 82.6 crore for construction of the skywalk.