A new Bailey bridge connecting Dakshindari and Salt Lake’s AA Block — which promises to create a new route for vehicles headed to Sector V and EM Bypass from VIP Road — will be ready by the end of the year, said an official of Kolkata Metropolitan
Development Authority (KMDA).

The new bridge will take some traffic off the Ultadanga flyover that gets chock-a-block with cars during peak traffic hours.

This under-construction bridge will be the second Bailey bridge across the canal running between VIP Road and Salt Lake.

The 46-metre bridge will be a two-way bridge, unlike the existing Bailey bridge that takes off from near Lake Town and ends on Salt Lake.

“We started the construction of the Bailey bridge on October 24. The deadline to finish the construction is December 28. We are hoping to throw open the bridge by the
end of the year,” said the official.

The 46-metre bridge will cost ₹6 crore.

“The state urban development department is funding its construction,” said the official.

Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), which won the contract to set up the bridge, will bring the units to the site and assemble the structure.

The bridge will be made of structural steel. Its foundation will be of concrete.

“There are already two bridges across the canal. The one near Kestopur ends near Tank No. 8 in Salt Lake. One can directly proceed to Karunamoyee from there, but this road is very narrow and has several of speed breakers. Many people tend to avoid this bridge because of these two reasons,” said a resident of Kestopur, who works for a consulting firm at Sector V. This, too, is a two-way bridge.

The other existing bridge is a Bailey bridge near Lake Town, but since this is a one-way bridge, only cars headed towards Salt Lake from VIP Road can use it.

This Bailey bridge was built in 2018 after a crack appeared in one of the piers of the Ultadanga flyover, and it had to be closed to traffic for repairs, said the official.

Since the under-construction bridge will be two-way, a Lake Town resident said that it will benefit those going to Salt Lake from VIP Road and vice versa, rather than those headed to EM Bypass from VIP Road.

But its efficacy will depend on whether cars coming from Salt Lake can cross over to the airport-bound flank of VIP Road after crossing the Bailey bridge at Dakshindari.

The KMDA official said there is a provision to cross over to the airport-bound flank because the state public works department, the custodian of the VIP Road, has
created a crossover point there.

Whether the crossover will be allowed or not is a decision that will be taken by police once the Bailey bridge is ready for commissioning.