July 9: A two-storey building that houses 30 families and 20 shops is to be pulled down soon so that the Garden Reach flyover can be completed in time for an October inauguration.

The building located at the Jainkunj crossing was among the final hurdles in the path of the 4km flyover between Garden Reach and Diamond Harbour Road. The breakthrough came recently when the residents, all tenants of the port authority, agreed to the state government's offer to provide temporary accommodation nearby and construct a new building for them later.

The structure needs to be demolished for cranes to be able to lift girders and deck slabs 20 metres above the ground and lay them above the piers of the flyover.

Girders are heavy concrete beams that bear the load of the deck slab and transmit it down to the piers. The deck slabs placed above the girders make the surface on which vehicles run.

Urban development minister Firhad Hakim had met the residents and shop owners on several occasions, finally managing to convince them to shift. "I promised them that their homes would be rebuilt. We have a scheme to house the urban poor. The new building will be built under that scheme," the minister told Metro.

An engineer with Larsen & Toubro, which has been contracted to build the flyover, said two piers were within handshaking distance of the building and the last phase of construction could not start until the structure was demolished. "We need cranes to be positioned where the building is to erect the girders and the deck slabs. These are structures that are built elsewhere and brought to the location and fitted," the engineer explained.

The Rs 306-crore flyover project had started in October 2014 and was to be completed within 18 months. But unavailability of land and encroachments delayed work on several stretches.

The flyover takes off from the Brooklyn crossing, close to Ramnagar at the Garden Reach end, and terminates near Majherhat railway station.

The project layout includes a passage that will lead vehicles coming down the flyover to Diamond Harbour Road. One ramp will terminate at Remount Road. Vehicles headed for Kidderpore can take this route.

Getting permission from the railways to build a 25-metre stretch above the circular railway tracks is another challenge that the project has only recently overcome. Two piers on either side of the tracks couldn't be built for more than a year because technical clearance for this portion was pending.

In April, Metro had highlighted how a rare infrastructure project that was on track to meet its completion target ended up stumbling on railway bureaucracy in its last lap.

"The railways has given permission to build one of the piers. Hopefully, the other one will be green-lighted soon," said an engineer associated with the project.

Once ready, the Garden Reach flyover would provide a hassle-free commute from Majherhat near Diamond Harbour Road to Ramnagar. The estimated time to cross this stretch through the elevated road is less than 10 minutes. The road that most vehicles currently take runs in a different direction and takes between 30 and 40 minutes to cover, mainly because of heavy port traffic.

The flyover's inauguration would divide the burden of traffic on the thoroughfare. Private cars can take the flyover while heavy vehicles that carry goods to and from the several warehouses in the port area would need to take the old road. "If new problems do not crop up, we should be able to complete the flyover by October. This is despite the monsoon hitting its peak. Any outdoor construction activity slows down during the rainy season and there is little you can do about it," an official said.

The flyover project is being implemented by the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority.