Kolkata: Residents of Salt Lake and those staying off VIP Road at Golaghata and Dakshindari are to get better connectivity between Salt Lake and VIP Road this month with the Bailey bridge over Kestopur canal at Golaghata expected to be thrown open for both-way traffic. There will be a five-seven-day traffic block on a 30-40 m stretch of the Kolkata-bound flank of VIP Road between Dakshindari and Golaghata from midnight on Jan 9 for Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) to install the truss structure of the bridge.
Bidhannagar traffic police officers said two of the four lanes of the flank on the stretch will be closed. "It will take about a week to install and properly fix the truss structure on the pillars to complete setting up the Bailey bridge. After that, a load test will be conducted. The bridge is expected to be ready for traffic by the end of this month," a KMDA official said.
Unlike the existing Bailey bridge, situated at Lake Town, which only allows one-way traffic entering Salt Lake from VIP Road, the second bridge will be a two-way bridge connecting AA Block and VIP Road near Dakshindari.
The first Bailey bridge was set up in Sept 2019 as an alternative one-way route to enter Salt Lake from VIP Road. The new bridge will be about 45 m long, 7.5 m wide, and will have two lanes. "The new bridge will help reduce traffic at Hudco crossing and at the AK Block-AJ Block junction, where there is a concrete vehicular bridge connecting with Kestopur," an official said.