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Passing through Salkia Chowrasta will not be a nightmare, come August 2008. The state transport department has decided to construct a two-lane flyover at Salkia to ease the flow of north-bound traffic along GT Road and to cope with the rush of vehicles from NH6 (Bombay Road) via Varanasi Road.
The principal secretary of the department, Sumantra Chowdhury, said the plan has been sanctioned and the project will be funded by the state transport department and the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC).
“The HRBC has been given the responsibility of overseeing the construction of the flyover. The state government has sanctioned Rs 30 crore for the project. Work is expected to start in a few months. The flyover will be 500-m-long and 7.5-m-wide,” said Chowdhury.
Traffic congestion at the junction of Varanasi Road and GT Road, near Parijat cinema, has been a problem for over 30 years. “The situation has become worse with the rise in the number of vehicles trying to enter the city from the north. It takes a minimum of 20 minutes to cross the stretch,” said Tapas Ganguly, a resident of the area.
“The bottleneck is created because of the rush of traffic. People are often forced to take a train to the city to save time. The flyover would reduce the number of traffic snarls on the stretch,” explained S.R. Banerjee, the vice-chairman of the HRBC.
There were several proposals to tackle the congestion on GT Road. “There was a suggestion to build a one-lane flyover over a longer stretch. Considering the number of vehicles that cover the stretch, the sanctioned plan is the best,” said the transport department official.
“We have asked the Howrah Improvement Trust to implement the project. It will soon float a tender and seek applications from construction companies to take up this job. We are trying to make sure that work starts as soon as possible. The land acquisition is almost over. Only a small stretch is yet to be acquired. The 80 families that have been evicted will be rehabilitated and compensated,” said Banerjee.
