A trial run of traffic diversions at Chingrighata, clearance for which has stalled a vital Metro project, is likely this weekend, sources said following a meeting on Tuesday between representatives of the state government and the railways.
The impact of the test will be studied before the enforcement of a longer traffic block at the intersection, one of the busiest in the city, which is likely in November, the sources said.
The traffic block is needed to lift concrete piers to bridge a 366m gap in the Metro viaduct at the Chingrighata intersection. The gap is the vital missing link in the New Garia-Airport Metro link or the Orange Line, which is functional between New Garia and Beleghata.
Construction at the site, between Beleghata and Gour Kishore Ghosh (Chingrighata) stations on EM Bypass, has remained stalled since February. The police clearance for the block is pending despite multiple meetings.
Tuesday's meeting followed a Calcutta High Court push. On September 3, a division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De heard a PIL seeking judicial intervention to break the stalemate. The agencies were prodded to find a solution, failing which, the bench said, it would pass an appropriate order.
"The trial run will be held to understand how the traffic flow along both flanks of the Bypass might be affected. The impact will be discussed with RVNL and Metro officials after the Pujas, before deciding on the actual dates of the block," a senior state official said on Tuesday night.
A comprehensive report must be submitted before the bench by the next hearing on September 18. Before the formal submission, no official or agency was willing to speak on record. But sources said that the meeting broadly outlined the plan.
The trial block is likely between 11pm on Saturday and 7am on Sunday. The actual block will likely be in place for two consecutive weekends in November, said one of them.
At the previous hearing, the RVNL counsel had told the court that the agency needed the block from 11pm to 7am, starting Friday night and ending Monday morning, for two consecutive weekends.
On Tuesday, representatives from multiple agencies — Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), transport department, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Bidhannagar police, Metro Railway and RVNL — were part of the meeting at the Metro Railway headquarters. It lasted over three hours.
A proposed underpass at the Chingrighata intersection — to tackle the anticipated surge in the movement of pedestrians after Chingrighata became part of the Metro network — did not make a headway at the meeting, the sources said. In its submission in court, the police had set the construction of the passage as a condition to sanction the block. But at the previous hearing, the RVNL cited a communication from Metro Railway that said that trains would not stop at the upcoming Gour Kishore Ghosh (Chingrighata) station until the subway was built.
"Chingrighata being a complex crossing due to heavy pedestrian crossover, the impact has to be assessed carefully," the state official said.
"Post Puja, Kolkata Police will discuss how RVNL wants to go about doing its job in detail and what its diversion plans are for the movement of heavy machinery."
The RVNL has already built a 600m diversion road as requested by the police. The road, which cuts through Captain Bheri, a water body which is part of the East Calcutta wetlands, a Ramsar site, will be dismantled after the viaduct gap is bridged.