On EM Bypass at Chingrighata on the second and third weekends of November, traffic blocks will be imposed to construct a 366m gap in the viaduct by lifting concrete piers. The most important missing link of the Orange Line is the gap that has been made available between New Garia and Beleghata.
Garia and Calcutta Airport
According to Metro officials, all the remaining gaps along the long awaited Orange Line, linking New Garia and Calcutta airport will be filled next year with the assistance of the state government.
New Garia and Beleghata
On EM Bypass at Chingrighata on the second and third weekends of November, traffic blocks will be imposed to construct a 366m gap in the viaduct by lifting concrete piers. The most important missing link in the Orange Line that is currently operational in between New Garia and Beleghata is the gap.
Other than Chingrighata, four areas also require such similar blocks to support the construction as per the officials of RVNL, the implementing organization of the 31km Orange Line. These will be Chinar Park, Nabadiganta (Technopolis) and Nazrul Tirtha as per RVNL authorities. There are small holes in the viaduct at certain locations. The station needs to be built at others.
Sources indicated that the state government had provided an in-principle’ consent of giving the blocks in phases.
Then, ideally, the Orange Line ought to be finished by the end of 2026. The line will require a few more months before commissioning, as general manager of Metro Railway, Subhransu Sekhar Mishra said.
According to a senior officer of Bidhannagar commissionerate, this is a process that is going on. Traffic blocks have been authorised in the past. Any proposal that may arise to us in future, we will consider it.
In August this year, Calcutta airport was also added to Metro network as the first part of Yellow Line between the stations of Noapara and Jai Hind Bimanbandar (airport) was commissioned. The airport station will be a crossing station once Orange Line is completed as the two routes will operate at the station. At Noapara, the Yellow Line intersects the Blue Line (northsouth line) and at Esplanade, the Blue Line and the Green Line (eastwest metro) intersect.
When the Orange Line is operational, the Metro network will serve the airport, as well as two of the busiest railway stations (Howrah and Sealdah). It will be a gamechanger of the commute of people, said Mishra.
The station is not fully constructed at Chinar Park. Nabadiganta or Technopolis has two components of under construction. One is closing a hole in the viaduct and the other is completing the station construction.
It is now left with the work of closing the gaps in the viaduct that exists between the stations of Nabadiganta and Nazrul Tirtha. The gaps require five spans of girders to be raised which sum up to slightly more than 450m.
In both cases we shall require traffic diversions. It has to be nodded by the police, said an official.
The viaduct at Chingrighata was a long-running issue which was finally solved last month with the talks among the stakeholders Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), transport department, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Bidhannagar police, Metro Railway and RVNL, of the railways and the state government following a prod by Calcutta High Court.
The project had not been built in the area between Beleghata and Gour Kishore Ghosh (Chingrighata) stations on EM Bypass since February.
No block clearance was done by the police even after several meetings had been held earlier.
The court nudge followed after a PIL was heard by a division bench which requested the court to take urgent judicial action in the unreasonable delay in the completion of the Orange Line.
During the hearing, the RVNL counsel had informed the court that the agency required the block on 11pm to 7am, the Friday night and Monday morning, two weekends in a row.
The police have requested the RVNL to construct a 600m diversion road which has already been constructed by the organization. The road that passes through the Captain Bheri, a water body that is a portion of the East Calcutta wetlands, Ramsar site will be removed following the viaduct gap bridging.
