All the remaining gaps in the much-anticipated Orange Line, connecting New Garia and Calcutta airport, will be bridged by next year with the state government’s help, said Metro officials.

Traffic blocks will be enforced at Chingrighata on EM Bypass on the second and third weekends of November to lift concrete piers to bridge a 366m gap in the viaduct. The gap is the most crucial missing link in the Orange Line, which is now functional between New Garia and Beleghata.

Apart from Chingrighata, there are four other areas where similar blocks are needed to facilitate construction, said officials of RVNL, the executing agency of the 31km Orange Line. The areas are in Chinar Park, Nabadiganta (Technopolis) and Nazrul Tirtha, said RVNL officials. At some places, there are minor gaps in the viaduct. At others, the construction of the station has to be completed.

The state government had given an “in-principle’ approval to grant the blocks in phases, sources said.

“If things go according to plan, the construction of the Orange Line should be complete by the end of 2026. A few more months will be needed before the line is commissioned,” said Subhransu Sekhar Mishra, general manager of Metro Railway.

A senior officer of Bidhannagar commissionerate told this newspaper: “This is a continuous process. We have granted permission for traffic blocks in the past. If any proposal comes to us in the future, we will take it into consideration”.

Calcutta airport was included in the Metro network in August this year with the commissioning of the first section of the Yellow Line between Noapara and Jai Hind Bimanbandar (airport) stations. Once the Orange Line is ready, the airport station will be a hub for the two routes. The Yellow Line meets the Blue Line (north-south corridor) at Noapara and the Blue Line and Green Line (East-West Metro) meet at Esplanade.

“Once the Orange Line is functional, the Metro network will cover the airport and two of the busiest railway stations (Howrah and Sealdah). It is going to be a gamechanger for how people commute,” said Mishra.

At Chinar Park, the construction of the station is not complete yet. There are two parts of pending construction at Nabadiganta or Technopolis. One is bridging a gap in the viaduct and the other is finishing the construction of the station.

The last remaining job is bridging gaps in the viaduct between Nabadiganta and Nazrul Tirtha stations. Five spans of girders have to be lifted to bridge the gaps, which add up to just over 450m.

“We will need traffic diversions in each case. A nod has to come from the police,” said an official.

The long-standing stalemate over the construction of the viaduct at Chingrighata was finally resolved last month through discussions among stakeholders —Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), transport department, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Bidhannagar police, Metro Railway and RVNL — from the railways and the state government following a prod from Calcutta High Court .

Construction at the site, between Beleghata and Gour Kishore Ghosh (Chingrighata) stations on EM Bypass, had remained stalled since February.

The police clearance for the block was pending despite multiple meetings in the past.

The court nudge came after a division bench heard a PIL that sought “urgent judicial intervention in the inordinate delay in the completion” of the Orange Line.

At the hearing, the RVNL counsel had told the court that the agency needed the block from 11pm to 7am, starting Friday night and ending Monday morning, for two consecutive weekends.

The RVNL has already built a 600m diversion road as requested by the police. The road, which cuts through Captain Bheri, a water body which is part of the East Calcutta wetlands, a Ramsar site, will be dismantled after the viaduct gap is bridged.