Kolkata: Sealdah flyover opens to traffic 7 hours before schedule – Times of India

Kolkata News

Cars not being allowed on Sealdah flyover

Kolkata: Sealdah flyover was thrown open to traffic at 11pm on Monday, seven hours before schedule as the East-West Metro tunnel borer dug safely past the structure.
The flyover was supposed to remain out of bounds to traffic till 6am on Tuesday. But work was expedited following requests from Kolkata Police that is keen to open the Sealdah flyover to traffic from early Tuesday to avoid a repeat of Monday’s congestion in central Kolkata.
Police had actually requested Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) to clear the flyover by Monday afternoon. Though engineers of ITD ITD-Cementation that is executing this section of the tunnel did accelerate the TBM, it still needed time till late evening.
A portion of it was closed since 11pm on Friday to facilitate tunnelling for the East-West Metro corridor. While the lower traffic count on Saturday and Sunday meant there weren’t too much congestion during the weekend, Monday proved a pain for those commuting through central Kolkata.
In addition to hike in vehicle count in this belt, political rallies added to the woes.
Vehicles crawled on Creek Row, Ganesh Chandra Avenue, Central Avenue, MG Road, Amherst Street, Surya Sen Street, BB Ganguly Street and Nirmal Chandra Street all afternoon as five rallies, big and small, impeded traffic flow.
With gatherings at Wellington Square, Khadya Bhawan and RR Avenue, traffic was forced on to CR Avenue. Buses moving towards the city centre had to be diverted via Maniktala towards CR Avenue. “We managed to keep CR Avenue moving though movement was slow. We could have done much better if we had the Sealdah flyover at our disposal,” said an officer.
Once the three arterial roads slowed down, it had a ripple effect on Lenin Sarani and SN Banerjee Road as well.
Police also improvised according to the situation and stopped buses from entering Amherst Street to prevent the snarl from choking the area. In the evening, buses were diverted from College Street-MG Road Crossing instead of Surya Sen Street. “Evening traffic was smoother as rallies had concluded by then,” said an officer.
Unlike the last time (October 2) when tunnel boring machine (TBM) Urvi had crossed the flyover, the current stint has been longer. While digging the eastbound tunnel, Urvi took two-and-a-half days to cross the 25-m distance across the flyover.
This time, four nights and three days were needed to cover the same distance. The difference, officials said, was because unlike October when Urvi was on its last leg of tunneling when it reached Sealdah, it is on its “initial” drive for the other tunnel this time and pace of excavation is always slow in the beginning.
Urvi and sibling TBM Chundi had started digging the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch in early 2019, but the latter hit an aquifer and buildings collapsed in Bowbazar after large scale subsidence. Urvi is currently completing Chundi’s job, bridging the 800m gap of the west-bound tunnel.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/sealdah-flyover-opens-to-traffic-7-hrs-before-schedule/articleshow/80335426.cms