Oct. 8: One of the construction projects in the city will finally see the end of the road.

The new rail overbridge at Maligaon will be thrown open to vehicular traffic ahead of Durga Puja to lessen the burden on the existing bridge.

While the flyovers under construction at Bhangagarh and Six Mile have been delayed by more than six months, this is the one project taken up by the PWD in recent times, which was completed with minimal delay.

A source in the PWD said chief minister Tarun Gogoi would inaugurate the bridge on October 14. The date is, however, tentative.

“The inauguration of the two-lane bridge will remove the traffic bottleneck at Maligaon. The government has decided to open the new bridge ahead of the Pujas as Maligaon and Pandu areas witness a heavy rush of traffic during the festival,” he said.

With the rapid increase involume of traffic, the existing two-lane overbridge at Maligaon, which was constructed several decades ago, had became a bottleneck leading to congestion in the area.

“After the inauguration, traffic from Adabari towards Maligaon will be diverted through the new bridge while the vehicles coming from Maligaon towards Adabari will only be allowed through the existing overbridge,” the official said. “Since the new bridge was constructed along the existing overbridge, it will widen the road from two lanes to four lanes and ensure smooth vehicular movement.”

The widening of the Maligaon rail overbridge was a long-felt need as it was the main road link between the city and its westernmost areas. Moreover, the overbridge is also important because it goes over the railway crossing on AT Road, which leads to the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Borjhar.

The Guwahati state road division of the PWD has constructed the 484-metre new rail overbridge at a cost of Rs 12.53 crore. The PWD had taken up the construction of the bridge in March last year. The department had engaged a private contractor, D.D. Sharma, for the purpose.

The source said the new bridge would have a crash barrier on one side and a footpath with railings on the other. The central portion of the bridge that passes over the railway track is nearly 44 metres long.

“The construction of the rail overbridge is almost over, except for the compaction of the approach roads on both sides and some electrical jobs still remain incomplete. These works will also be completed in the next few days,” the official said.

The bridge was constructed with the funds released by the Centre under the non-lapsable central pool of resources. “The Centre provided 90 per cent of the funds while the state government gave 10 per cent,” the source said.

The state government has paid Rs 8 lakh to the railways as charges for supervising the design and construction of the portion that passes over the railway tracks.

He said the bridge was due to be completed by August 30 but has been delayed by a month because of unavoidable circumstances.

“We could not complete the bridge within the deadline because it took three to four months for the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) to remove some electricity poles. Moreover, we had to stop work for some weeks because the railway raised an objection over the construction of the retaining walls of the approach road saying that a portion of the wall was constructed on railway land. The construction resumed only after we sorted out the matter with the railway,” the source said.