A bridge and a new road connecting Delhi Road and GT Road that will be thrown open to the public on Thursday promise to change Chandernagore's traffic scene.
The project, around 59km from Calcutta, is unique in the sense that a 2.5km stretch of road has been built by converting farmland apart from the 780m bridge that runs over railway tracks, houses and farmland.
The bridge and the new road will help people bypass the Chandernagore Station Road, which sees traffic snarls almost throughout the day, and cut the 20-minute journey to half.
The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority is the project's implementing agency. L&T bagged the project in November 2012 but could not start work till February 2014 because of land logjam.
The 7m-wide bridge has two lanes, an L&T engineer said. "Large goods vehicles or buses can ply on the bridge."
But the decision to allow such vehicles on the bridge rests on the local authority.
People headed for Chandernagore via Delhi Road now take the Chandernagore Station Road from the Bilkuli Ashram ground crossing.
The narrow road remains chock-a-block with autos, rickshaws, cars and bikes apart from hawkers on either side of the road. Moreover, no vehicle over 6.5ft in height (about that of a Tata Sumo) can use the road because of the low underpass.
"Trucks carrying construction material can now easily reach the town, thanks to the new bridge," Samir Maity of Samantapara in Chandernagore said.
Now, large vehicles make a detour of almost 20km via Baidyabati or Mogra to enter Chandernagore. From Thursday, such vehicles can take the bridge from the Bilkuli Ashram ground crossing.
Also, the GT Road is about a kilometre from the other end of the bridge.
The L&T engineer said 350 metres of an existing road were widened to 7.5m from 3m as part of the project that cost Rs 70 crore.
The project could not take off in 2012 because of land unavailability. Once the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation bought land from farmers, L&T started work in 2014.
"We have bought three acres of land at almost Rs 21 crore from 300 people," mayor Ram Chakraborty said.
