The chief minister's flyover dream for Ranchi is likely to take off very soon, with city guardians already drawing up a traffic diversion plan for two multi-crore projects.

Traffic SP Sanjay Ranjan Singh and senior officials M.P. Choudhary and Ashish Kumar of supervising firm Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (JUIDCL) inspected the proposed sites in Kantatoli and LPN Nath Shahdeo Chowk on Thursday.

"Places where the flyovers have been proposed are among the busiest arteries of Ranchi. Once construction work begins, traffic movement will be largely disrupted. Hence, we are here to chalk out alternative routes, which is a challenging task. We have to submit a traffic diversion plan to the principal secretary of urban development by Monday," Singh said after their two-hour inspection.

The 905-metre Kantatoli to Booty Road flyover will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 37 crore while the 2.34km flyover between LPN Nath Shahdeo Chowk on Kanke Road and Kartik Oraon Chowk on Harmu Road will involve Rs 121 crore. Both flyovers will be 16.6 metres wide and rise 7 metres above ground. Below roads and footpaths will be constructed for which separate tenders will be floated.

A source in the urban development department said construction of the Kantatoli flyover was likely to begin by May. "Raghubar Das ji (chief minister) is monitoring the projects."

From Kantatoli Chowk, the road forks four times towards Kantatoli, Bahu Bazaar and Station Road in onedirection; Namkum on NH 33 in the second; Lalpur in the third; and Booty More in the fourth.

The stretch between Booty More and Kantatoli Chowk may be a problem area for the diversion plan, as the inspecting team barely found any arm straight and wide enough to accommodate four-wheelers. Also, these lanes don't merge into any other main artery.

"We are planning to divert traffic from Kokar Chowk. For small vehicles coming from Namkum, we are planning to use Samlong, Pragati Path and Dhumratoli for diversion. We are the discussing possibility of using Ring Road to divert heavy vehicles coming from Jamshedpur. But, plans are tentative. I will hold a detailed meeting with officials of the (traffic) department soon," SP Singh said.

From LPN Nath Shahdeo Chowk, the artery forks in four directions towards Kanke Road, Raj Bhavan, Ratu Road and Radio Station Road.

Alok Kumar Mandal; deputy GM of JUIDCL, said private agency Modi Construction Company had bagged the tender for the Kantatoli flyover while Mecon had prepared the detailed report for both projects.

"In 10 days, we will sign an agreement (with the agency). Groundwork like pillaring will start by next month while land acquisition process will continue. The project is expected to be completed in two years," Mandal said.

For the Kantatoli flyover, the state will acquire 20.277 decimals of government land and 450.38 decimals of private land for which the process has been initiated, sources added.

In March, the district administration, RMC and JUIDCL had held a public hearing on social impact with residents who have reportedly agreed to part with their land.

For the Shahdeo flyover, a tender is expected to be floated by mid-April. The state has earmarked 246.056 decimals of government and 296.028 decimals of private land, which was opposed by residents during last month's hearing. The government is yet to fix the next date of hearing.