Steel bridge to ease traffic, additional road space near the Metropolitan crossing
Telegraph | 16 April 2025
Vehicles bound for Science City from Chingrighata along the EM Bypass will find additional road space near the Metropolitan crossing.
The vehicular movement will be faster if the steel bridge that has been installed is made functional as soon as possible, police have written to the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the implementing agency for the New Garia-Airport metro link.
The Metropolitan crossing on EM Bypass is one of the busiest, and the stretch where the RVNL has installed a steel bridge is relatively narrower because of two metro pillars in the middle.
This forces vehicles bound for Science City to slow down.
Almost two years back, the RVNL decided to construct a steel bridge on a canal — popularly known as Moila Khal — along the south-bound flank of EM Bypass near the Metropolitan crossing, responding to a police request ahead of providing a traffic block to construct piers on the Bypass to the agency.
“The bridge was supposed to be handed over in December last year. Since then, the RVNL has been seeking fresh dates to complete the remaining task and hand it over to us. We have written to the RVNL to hand over the structure to us as soon as possible,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police overseeing traffic movement on EM Bypass said.
“This bridge will help reduce peak-hour congestion on EM Bypass for vehicles headed to Science City and the Ruby crossing along the south-bound flank of the thoroughfare.”
The 55-metre-long bridge is around three-metre high and is made of steel and concrete girders.
Once functional, it will offer four meters of additional space for smaller vehicles, including cars and two-wheelers, to move faster down the south-bound flank of EM Bypass, the police said.
“The Ultadanga-bound flank of EM Bypass near the Metropolitan crossing has two large culverts. This has made the flank a six-lane road. Vehicles headed towards Chingrighata don’t have to slow down despite two metro piers standing in the middle,” the police officer said.
“We want to do the same for the south-bound flank near the Metropolitan crossing by throwing open the steel bridge to smaller vehicles.”
Managing the peak evening-hour traffic on EM Bypass remains challenging for the cops, with streams of cars from Sector V and New Town merging with the Science City-bound vehicles.
Officers said near the Metropolitan crossing, the Science City-bound vehicles are forced to slow down because the road space gets constricted here because of a turn.
The steel bridge has been installed here with the idea that smaller vehicles could take this structure and move faster.
“The RVNL officials initially set December as the deadline for handing over the steel bridge. The deadline has been shifting since. We expected it would be ready by March. But even that seems far-fetched now,” the police officer said
Senior RVNL officials said engineers working on the bridge were in their last lap of tying up the loose ends. The handover to Kolkata Police would be completed within a week, they said
“The handover of the steel bridge would be completed within a week. The steel bridge will accommodate smaller vehicles, including cars and two-wheelers. But big commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, will not be allowed to use this structure,” said a senior RVNL official.