Govt picks demolish-rebuild route for Majerhat

  • | Saturday | 15th September, 2018

KOLKATA: The entire Majerhat bridge, a portion of which collapsed on September 4, will be demolished and a new bridge will be built over the railway tracks, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Friday. We have requested them to allow a manned level crossing because this is an emergency. The chief secretary has, therefore, suggested demolition of the bridge and immediate reconstruction. They have also suggested a third alignment through an existing level crossing. Cops have been at their wit’s end managing traffic bottlenecks at New Alipore and on Durgapur bridge and Tollygunge bridge since the Majerhat crash, using every available road and alley to deal with the situation.The government has identified two alignments across the tracks, one next to Majerhat bridge and another 500 metres away.

KOLKATA: The entire Majerhat bridge, a portion of which collapsed on September 4, will be demolished and a new bridge will be built over the railway tracks, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Friday. She set her government departments an ambitious target of completing the task within a year.TOI, in a front-page story on September 8, had reported how a broad consensus had emerged among PWD engineers on the need to dismantle the old bridge and construct a new one, rejecting the other option of repairing and strengthening the old bridge.A committee headed by state chief secretary Malay De homed in on the demolitionreconstruction option after weighing all the suggestions, Banerjee said. “There were suggestions to set up a Bailey bridge across the portion that caved in. But that would not have solved the problem; only small vehicles can ply on it. The chief secretary has, therefore, suggested demolition of the bridge and immediate reconstruction. We will use modern technology and we hope to complete it within a year,” she said, adding that De would personally monitor the project.Banerjee made it clear that agencies like the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Kolkata Police would, at the same time, go on pursuing multiple options to make the commute between Behala and the rest of the city tolerable.“I sent mayor Sovon Chatterjee, police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and additional commissioner of police Jawed Shamim to survey the entire area so that we can find alternative routes and improve some existing roads to manage traffic. There is Durga Puja and Ganga Sagar Mela ahead and we need to plan for these,” she said, adding that the state government was talking to senior railway officials on the possibility of having a manned level crossing as a temporary measure.But the chief minister’s decision to come out with a firm plan of action within 10 days of the collapse indicates that the government is determined to have the permanent solution in place as soon as possible. Officials said opinion was sought from IIT Kharagpur and IIEST, Shibpur, on the least time-consuming way of building a new structure.The challenge, officials said, would be sticking to the one-year deadline. Project managers said it would require meticulous planning and execution; an even bigger challenge would be completing the tender process, both for demolition and reconstruction, so quickly.There is yet another challenge the chief minister acknowledged in her Friday address: the problems that Behala and South 24 Parganas residents would have to endure during the project period. Cops have been at their wit’s end managing traffic bottlenecks at New Alipore and on Durgapur bridge and Tollygunge bridge since the Majerhat crash, using every available road and alley to deal with the situation.The government has identified two alignments across the tracks, one next to Majerhat bridge and another 500 metres away. Railway officials have discounted the first because of multiple hurdles in setting up a level crossing there but are looking at the feasibility of the second. They have also suggested a third alignment through an existing level crossing. Work is underway to strengthen the roads that make up this allignment so that trials can begin this weekend.Banerjee said she had spoken to the Eastern Railway general manager and chief secretary De, too, spoke to railway officials. “We have written to Delhi and our officers have been coordinating with them. We have requested them to allow a manned level crossing because this is an emergency. We will bear the cost of setting it up and pay the salary for the person who mans the crossing. The PWD has inspected the site on Friday and will submit a report to me. Small vehicles can ply on this road if this (the alternative route) is successful,” the CM added.

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