Come January, the people of Patna can look forward to the city's second flyover.
The Rs 72-crore flyover, being constructed on Exhibition Road for the past two years, is likely to be inaugurated in the first fortnight of the new year.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar had inaugurated the 2.275km Jagdeopath-Sheikhpura Mor flyover, the city's first, on July 21 this year. The Exhibition Road flyover is an extension of the Chiraiyatand railway over-bridge up to Ram Gulam Chowk at the southern end of Gandhi Maidan.
The new flyover will be one-way, allowing vehicular movement from south Gandhi Maidan towards Chiraiyatand railway over-bridge. Vehicles coming from the opposite side (from Kankerbagh) can use road below the flyover after getting down from the western flank of Chiraiyatand railway over-bridge to reach Gandhi Maidan.
The length of the flyover is around 800m, including the approach road on both ends.
"Streetlights have been installed on the entire stretch of the Exhibition Road flyover and other finishing works, including making markers and carpeting, are on at its approach road," said a senior engineer of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL), the agency supervising the project. "We intend to open the flyover for vehicular movement by the first fortnight of January."
The engineer added that work is simultaneously going on to develop parking lots underneath the new flyover to address the acute parking space crunch on the busy Exhibition Road area.
A similar model of development of parking lots was followed during the construction of the Jagdeopath-Sheikhpura Mor flyover, under which around 800 vehicles can be parked at present. "Parking becomes a major problem after construction of a flyover on a road," said the BRPNNL engineer. "Developing parking lots underneath the elevated structure is the best way to address the problem."
The Exhibition Road flyover is part of a two-way extension of the Chiraiyatand railway over-bridge. While the Exhibition Road flyover is a northward extension of the railway over-bridge, another flyover is being constructed over the busy Station Road, linking Chiraiyatand railway over-bridge with the Mithapur railway over-bridge.
Work on the two flyover extension projects started in November 2013 after the cabinet approved the projects on January 30 that year. The deadline for the construction of both the flyovers is April 30, 2016.
"While the work on the Exhibition Road flyover went on according to the initial schedule, the work on Station Road has been slightly delayed owing to objections on its construction at Nehru Golambar (station roundabout)," said the BRPNNL engineer.
"The urban development and housing department earlier this year stated that the alignment of the proposed Metro rail would go through this roundabout. We later made a few changes in the alignment of our flyover and sought approval from the department. The reply, however, came after four months and our work remained suspended during that time." Both the flyovers are being constructed by the Haryana-based S.P. Singla Constructions Pvt Ltd.
The technology being used for the construction of the flyovers is called segmental bridge. It is made by joining together small sections of concrete or spans using a steel support system.
The technique is ideal for those places where it is difficult to transport large sections of concrete. And it reduces the disruption to traffic flow during the construction period.
Once ready, the network of the two new flyovers along with the existing Chiraiyatand and Mithapur railway over-bridges will allow people to travel from R-Block to Gandhi Maidan without facing heavy traffic on Station and Exhibition roads.
It will also reduce the travel time considerably for commuters going towards Gandhi Maidan, Kankerbagh and Mithapur bus stand.
