Vidyasagar Setu will be closed to vehicles on both flanks for three hours between 4.30am and 7.30am on three days from June 13 to 15.
The closure is to facilitate repairs of the structure, Kolkata Police said on Wednesday.
A notification issued by Calcutta police commissioner Manoj Verma said vehicles coming down AJC Bose Road from Zeerut Island side and headed towards Vidyasagar Setu will be diverted through Turf View towards the Hastings crossing to take St Georges Gate Road, Strand Road and reach Howrah bridge or take a right turn from the Hastings crossing for KP Road.
“Vehicles coming down KP Road from Red Road for Vidyasagar Setu, will be diverted through Furlong Gate towards the Hastings crossing to avail St George’s Gate Road-Strand Road-Howrah Bridge,” said a senior officer of Kolkata Traffic Police.
According to the diversion plan, vehicles moving along Circular Garden Reach Road from Kidderpore and headed towards the Setu will be diverted through the Hastings crossing. From there, vehicles can use St George’s Gate Road to reach Strand Road and Howrah bridge.
“Traffic will be shut down to facilitate repair of the structure. Engineers have said they will survey the stability of the structure during the period when traffic will remain
shut on each of the three days,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.
“The first half of the day was selected for traffic closure so that peak hour vehicle movement along both flanks is not hit later in the day.”
Vidyasagar Setu (second Hooghly bridge) is the country’s longest cable-stayed bridge with 152 cables. There are two sets of piers at both ends that hold the cables.
The Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC), which maintains the structure, has initiated a series of repairs of the bridge, replacing some of the cables that had worn out. The cables were brought from Germany and are better equipped to fight corrosion, officials said.
“We want to check how different components of the bridge were functioning without any load on the structure. It is vital to understand whether the components were within the threshold limit or not,” a senior engineer of Rites, the consulting agency, said.
