The work to connect New Garia and Sector V is likely to be completed within the next six months after the final phase of bridging Metro pillars at the Chingrighata crossing, which began on Friday night, is completed, senior Metro officials said.
Once the link is operational, the commute between New Garia and Sector V — a distance of around 30km — will be reduced to 35 to 40 minutes, even during peak hours.
Over the next two days, Metro authorities will connect pillars 325 and 326 at the Chingrighata crossing with concrete decks.
The Chingrighata flyover was closed to traffic around 8pm on Friday and will remain shut till 8am on Monday. The work is expected to be completed by then.
Police have decided that traffic will be diverted from the intersection of Beleghata Main Road and EM Bypass towards Broadway (the road that leads to Nicco Park from Chingrighata) during this period.
“Once this work of connecting the pillars is completed, we will start the remaining work of connecting the entire stretch till Sector V. The Metro between Sector V and New Garia would be operational within the next six months,” a senior official of the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) said.
The RVNL is implementing the Orange Line Metro project between New Garia and Sector V.
Senior RVNL engineers said the bulk of the Metro work between Sukanta Nagar — near Chingrighata — and Sector V has been completed with the laying of tracks and the installation of various signalling equipment.
“Railway tracks for a majority of the nearly 9-km stretch between Sector V and Beleghata over Broadway have been laid except for just about 2.5km. Once the bridging of the pillars is completed at Chingrighata, this work will be taken up,” the senior RVNL official said.
“Over the next few months, our specialised teams will be busy conducting a series of tests and trials.”
Before the tracks are laid on the small stretch, prefabricated parapet structures and iron railings will be erected, followed by the installation of bearings.
RVNL officials said this work will begin immediately after the existing gap between pillars at the Chingrighata crossing has been bridged with concrete slabs.
The first phase of the pending Metro work at Chingrighata was completed in May, within days of the Suvendu Adhikari-led new government taking charge of the state.
“As with the previous instance, all arrangements have been made to ensure that this work too is completed without glitches. Senior officers have been briefed, and there will be a separate deployment of force during the work,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.