Park Circus: The ramp being built to connect the Parama and AJC Bose Road flyovers will have a twin branching off towards Gariahat, giving the city's longest elevated route an octopus reach.
The proposed southbound ramp is to start at the crossing near Zeeshan restaurant on Syed Amir Ali Avenue and end in front of Kalyan Jewellers, opposite the Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan school. A traffic feasibility survey has shown that the proposed ramp could reduce the time taken to travel towards Jadavpur from the Bypass by up to 45 minutes.
The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), which is the implementing agency for the flyover project, has no immediate plans for a parallel northbound ramp, sources said.
The highway division of infrastructure consultancy RITES will be hired to prepare a detailed project report. "The plan is to have a 2.2km ramp that will help commuters avoid snarl points like Quest Mall, Modern High School for Girls and Ballygunge Phari," a CMDA engineer said.
On a weekday, it takes about 25 minutes to cross the stretch between the crossing in front of Zeeshan and Pantaloons on the Gariahat side. The snarls get worse when Modern High opens in the morning and classes give over in the afternoon. "If you happen to cross that stretch when this school starts or gives over, it could take you up to 45 minutes just to get past the logjam," said a regular commuter.
If and when the ramp is ready, this same distance can be covered in about three minutes.
The detailed project report will give a clearer picture of the location where the ramp should land and whether there are potential challenges like removing underground utilities, which might prove difficult.
RITES, which functions under the railway ministry, has recommended a parallel ramp for commuters coming from the Gariahat side. "During our discussions with the CMDA, we suggested that they should think of the project as an independent flyover and not just a ramp. A unidirectional elevated corridor for a distance as long as 2.2km makes little sense," an official said.
According to a veteran civil engineer, there are several ways in which the link could have been planned. It could be an independent, two-way flyover taking off from near the Zeeshan crossing and terminating in front of Pantaloons. A second option is to have two ramps, both connecting to the link between the Parama and AJC Bose Road flyovers. "The southbound ramp can branch off from that link and the northbound ramp can connect to it," the engineer said.
The best option, he said, is to have the southbound ramp as planned and build a parallel, northbound corridor till the Zeeshan crossing on Syed Amir Ali Avenue.
"This will help northbound traffic immensely, besides benefiting commuters travelling between east and south Calcutta. Vehicles can head in any direction after getting off the flyover since the Park Circus seven-point crossing is close by."
Sources said the link between the Parama and AJC Bose Road flyovers will be ready by May. Building the proposed ramp after the link is thrown open to traffic won't be difficult, they added.
A senior official of a private infrastructure company said planning on a piecemeal basis rather than for an integrated area was a feature of projects in Calcutta."There is no point building one ramp now and another one later. This ramp could have been planned when the Parama flyover was on the drawing board."
