The 1.8km-long Nagerbazar flyover is set to be thrown open on Saturday after a delay of more than three years. Residents can hope for a respite from four years of broken roads, roadblocks and pollution. The flyover promises to make history the infamous snarls at the Nagerbazar crossing and provide airport-bound vehicles a swifter journey by eliminating the need to wait at the traffic lights.

Metro highlights how the flyover would help commuters and why it took so long to complete it.

Hopes and promises

The southern end of the flyover is at Bharati Park near Shyamnagar and at the other end is Clive House. Officials of HRBC, which built the flyover, say vehicles to and from the airport would benefit the most after the inauguration.

“Earlier, it used to take 20 minutes to cover the 1.8km stretch. With the flyover, it will take about four minutes to cover that distance. The vehicular pressure on the Nagerbazar crossing will also be reduced significantly,” said a Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC) official.

Residents hope the road under the flyover, in a sorry state for years, will be restored soon. “Till now, it was difficult to repair it as there was no alternative route and the vehicular pressure was immense,” said schoolteacher Namita Chowdhury, who lives near Clive House. “The municipality must immediately restore the road now that vehicles have the option to use the flyover.”

South Dum Dum Municipality chairman Anjana Rakshit said the road would be restored before monsoon.

“Considering the volume of traffic on the road, it was near impossible to repair it. Now, we hope to do so before monsoon,” he said.

Residents had been demanding the opening of the flyover because that would allow buses to ply on that stretch again. “Bus services on the stretch had been stopped for over a month. Many buses ran on truncated routes,” said resident Surya Dutta.

The project

The HRBC had undertaken the construction work in the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority-funded project.

Work on the Rs 85-crore flyover started in April 2007 and the first deadline was 18 months. Subsequently, four more deadlines were set and all of them missed.

Why the delay

HRBC officials blamed the heavy volume of traffic and the local municipality’s delay in handing over land for the deadline failure.

“We could work for only around five hours a day. Considering the safety of commuters and the heavy volume of traffic on the road underneath, we could work only at night. It was only during the last three months that we were allowed to work even in the daytime,” said an HRBC engineer.

“The South Dum Dum Municipality was supposed to grant us the right to build piers on the road. But they delayed the sanction. As a result, work started late,” he added.

Finished but half-done

Only half the purpose of the flyover has been achieved, as it is being inaugurated without the ramp that was supposed to take off from Dum Dum Road. The ramp couldn’t be built because of unavailability of adequate space to build piers on the road.

“The proposal hasn’t been rejected yet. We will think about other ways to implement it. Without the ramp, the flyover’s full purpose is lost,” said a traffic officer.

Vehicles coming from Dum Dum Road and headed towards Bangur or the airport will still need to wait at Nagerbazar. “The idea was to give these vehicles a smooth ride bypassing the crossing,” said the HRBC engineer.