One of the major flyover projects in Kolkata under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has cleared hurdles for a long-pending 600-metre leg.

The 4.6 km-long Park Circus-Parama flyover project, connecting central Kolkata with its eastern fringes including the airport and IT hub in Salt Lake, may now see speedy completion.

Executed by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the project was delayed by nearly one-and-a-half years as work for the 600-metre bridge could not be started. Dubbed as the longest elevated road corridor in the city, the flyover would cover a total length of about 9 km including its various arms.

“We have peacefully rehabilitated the slum-dwellers and shifted a sewerage pipeline from the planned route of the 600-metre bridge on the Park Circus end of the project. The contract has been awarded to L&T. With this breakthrough, we hope to complete the flyover latest by May, 2014,” Vivek Bharadwaj, chief executive officer of KMDA.

According to him, the 600-metre connecting bridge would entail an estimated investment of nearly Rs 72 crore. So, the entire project is likely to go up by nearly 23 per cent to Rs 390 crore (Rs 318 crore), he pointed out.

An 80-metre portion of the proposed 600-metre connecting flyover will be built by the Railways since it passes over a railway station (Park Circus).

Even though the original completion schedule of the flyover project was in August , it faced more than one force majeure situation (unforeseen eventualities), a senior official involved in the project said. “As we have finally tendered for the 600-metre bridge near Park Circus, the project should now pick up pace,” he pointed out.

> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in

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