DELAYED LINK: The Kidderpore flyover, inaugurated on Wednesday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

The Kidderpore flyover is finally ready, after years of delay. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee threw open the flyover and a bridge on Tolly’s Nullah to the public on Wednesday.

Bhattacharjee said while inaugurating the flyover: “It’s unfortunate that we took such a long time to complete it. The flyover will serve as a faster link between Kidderpore and the rest of the city.”

The Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC), the implementing agency of the Rs 12.6-crore project, had given the contract to construct the flyover and the bridge to Mackintosh Burn Limited, a state-run public sector undertaking.

Work on the 558-metre flyover started in 1997 and was scheduled to end by 2000. But the construction had to be stopped after a design fault was detected. The HRBC had to prepare a new design.

The flyover, a pre-fabricated steel structure like the Park Street flyover, extends from Fancy Market, on Garden Reach Circular Road, up to Vidyasagar Setu. From there, commuters can take either Race Course Road or AJC Bose Road.

“We will have to construct a wing that will lead to National Highway 117, work on which will start soon,” Bhattacharjee added. The highway links Kona with Bakkhali, via Diamond Harbour.

The bridge over Tolly’s Nullah is also made of steel. “We will now have to start repairing the old bridge,” said transport minister Subhas Chakraborty.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and CPM parliamentarians Sujan Chakraborty, Mohammad Selim and Sudhanshu Sil were present at the inauguration.