Having been out of operation for months, Westwood Bailey bridge, a key link between Garden Reach and the city, will be renovated soon, thanks to a proposal from the railways to the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT).

South Eastern Railway (SER) general manager R.R. Bhandari, in his letter to CPT officials on August 16, proposed to repair the 114-year-old bridge at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore.

Earlier, the CPT had estimated the renovation cost at Rs 20 crore and shelved the proposal.

“We want the bridge to serve the port. It should be able to bear the load of container traffic,” said M.A. Bhaskarachar, deputy chairman of the CPT. He said CPT was planning to approach Delhi to disburse the sum.

However, Bhaskarachar said the CPT had no problem if the SER wanted to repair the bridge, if it bore the cost. “We are not interested in minor repairs, which will allow the bridge to be used by light vehicles only,” the CPT deputy chairman said.

“In our proposal, we asked the CPT to hand over the repair job to us. We will make the bridge operational at a rate much lower than the CPT estimate,” said Debashish Chanda, chief public relations officer, SER, on Thursday. “We are awaiting a response from them,” he added.

The Westwood Bailey bridge, popularly known in the locality as the swing bridge, was constructed in 1890 for movement of light vehicles. It connects Garden Reach with Strand Road and provides a bypass to Kidderpore. The bridge was very convenient for the densely-populated area (including 10,000 residents of BNR colony, 4,000 employees at SER’s headquarters). Ambulances, carrying patients to and from the SER Central Hospital on Garden Reach Road used the bridge, too.

The bridge was declared unsafe and for the past three months, only two-wheelers and pedestrians use it. “Its columns and the structure have become very weak and it is unsafe for even light vehicles,” a CPT official said.

Kazi Nazrul Islam Setu, on Karl Marx Sarani, has a heavy traffic load. “A vehicle has to cover an extra 2½ km to use it,” an SER official said. When the Setu spans open to allow a big ship to sail down, vehicles have to make a detour of five km through Katapukur, railway officials said.