The Bondel Gate flyover, to be thrown open to the public on Bengali New Year?s Day. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

After a delay of eight years, the state government is set to commission the third EM Bypass connector in south Calcutta ? the Bondel Gate flyover ? on Poila Baisakh (April 15) this year.

?The flyover will be thrown open to the public on the Bengali New Year?s day,? state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya announced on Tuesday after visiting the construction site.

The flyover was to be commissioned in 1998 but was delayed due to pressure from people living at the project site, who refused to shift. The estimated cost of the flyover was Rs 21 crore, but the figure escalated to Rs 36 crore.

Bridge no. 4, at Park Circus, and Bijon Setu, in Gariahat, link south Calcutta with EM Bypass. The new flyover will link the Bypass and Ballygunge Phari via Picnic Garden Road.

After it is commissioned, the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority will undertake widening of Picnic Garden Road and GS Bose Road. There is also a proposal to connect GS Bose Road with the Kasba connector of EM Bypass via Bosepukur.

The Bondel Gate flyover is a joint venture of the railways and the state public works department (PWD). The railways?s responsibility was to construct the main portion of the carriageway over the rail tracks. It completed the work years ago. The PWD built the approach roads to the flyover, on either side of the Bondel Gate level crossing, after several revisions to the design.

?While the construction on the eastern side of the railway track of the Sealdah (South) section was completed about five years ago, we had to face hurdles in executing the plan on the western side of the tracks,? PWD minister Amar Choudhury stated on Tuesday.

To prevent the project from getting stalled, CPM legislator from Ballygunge Rabin Deb persuaded the government to rehabilitate nearly 150 families residing on the western side of the level crossing at the Nonadanga housing project.

?The Bondel Gate flyover has created a world record in terms of delay,? was how Trinamul Congress councillor and leader of the Opposition in the civic body Javed Ahmed Khan reacted to the commissioning announcement.