Sec V lane on Salt Lake Bypass in Kolkata to be shut from Sunday in 7-day trial run

KOLKATA: IT workers headed to Sector V and New Town may encounter a bottleneck at Nicco Park on Monday morning as Bidhannagar Police will shut one lane of the IT hub-bound flank of Salt Lake Bypass from Sunday as a seven-day trial run.
The stretch will be blocked to link a metro station there with the viaduct. But the closure would be announced only after the trial, said an official.
According to traffic cops, of the two lanes below the under-construction Nicco Park station on flank headed to Sector V and New Town, the right lane next to the median divider will be shut from Sunday, leaving only the left lane and the service road on the extreme left free.
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), which is implementing the 29km New Garia-Airport Metro corridor, has been seeking the site for the past one year. The traffic block is required to cast concrete slabs and build the viaduct (on which Metro tracks are laid) to link the Nicco Park Metro station. On either side of the station, there are 30m and 40m viaduct gaps. “This is crucial to commissioning Phase III of the Metro corridor to Sector V,” a railways official said.
In the last meeting with Bidhannagar Police, RVNL was promised the site after the elections. “There will be some issues once the diversion is in place but we have constructed road space equivalent to the area that will be cordoned off. The trial will be held for seven days before the closure is announced for RVNL to link the viaducts before and after the station at Nicco Park,” said an official.
The New Gaira-Airport line passes through the stretch before meeting East-West Metro’s Sector V station and then continues via New Town to VIP Road before terminating at airport.