Santragachi Bridge snarl reaches toll plaza

Today's pain is tomorrow's gain. Motorists at the Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza would hope that "tomorrow" arrives soon.

Day 2 of the Santragachhi bridge repair, the first working day of the week, saw traffic snarls stretching from the bridge to the toll plaza and beyond - that is almost 2.5km - in the morning.

The ripple effect was felt throughout the day and in the evening both Kona Expressway and Andul Road were choked with traffic.

So, motorists leaving the city were stuck for hours irrespective of the route they chose. "I had to take a train from Santragachhi. Since I was stuck for over 30 minutes, I walked a bit and got on to a cycle rickshaw," said Sandeep Jaiswal, a resident of Taltala. "The rickshaw-puller charged me Rs 200 but helped me reach the station just on time." Jaiswal took a train to Surat.

Goods vehicles from Calcutta were diverted through Andul Road while private vehicles and buses were allowed on the Kona Expressway and on one of the flanks of the bridge. "This was the best arrangement we could have made. We just hope the repair work finishes on time," a traffic officer of the Howrah commissionerate said.

The bridge has been divided and police have shut the Calcutta-bound flank of the 10.7m-wide bridge to repair the expansion joints. Of the 42 joints, 22 need to be repaired/replaced. Once work on this flank is over, the other flank would be shut. The PWD's national highway division has set January 31 as the deadline to complete the repairs.

"Our men are working overnight to meet the deadline. But it's a challenge... our workers cannot work freely because of heavy vehicular movement on one flank," an engineer said.

Trucks and trailers headed towards Calcutta are being diverted either through Benaras Road from Salap in Howrah or through Nivedita Setu in Bally to connect Belghoria Expressway. When the bridge is closed to vehicular traffic from 11pm to 5am, motorists have to use the Howrah-Amta Road or the Drainage Canal Road - both of which are narrower than the Santragachhi bridge.

The Howrah-Amta Road is about 8-10m wide and congested in the rural areas of Howrah.

Drainage Canal Road in Salap can be accessed from Belepole More while travelling from Calcutta and is a wide two-lane road with a divider. But that is a small stretch, comprising about 20 per cent of the entire route. Motorists have to turn left from Shanpur More to take Howrah-Amta Road via Dasnagar.

"This morning, I took the Howrah-Amta Road from Howrah court via GT Road to avoid the jam at Santragachhi," Samir Basu Roychowdhury, a lawyer at Howrah Court, said. He was headed for another court in Uluberia. "But there were several others like me who had taken the same route and I was stuck near the IIEST for an hour. It took me around two hours to reach Alampur."

According to the original plan, cars, buses and two-wheelers from either direction were supposed to ply on the bridge alternately at five-minute intervals. But on Monday, traffic towards Calcutta was allowed on the bridge for 12-15 minutes and traffic from Calcutta for 10-12 minutes.

Several motorists Metro spoke to said the bridge, a vital link between Calcutta and Howrah, needed to be widened.

Kona Expressway has seen an exponential rise in the volume of traffic over a couple of years. Over 100,000 vehicles take the expressway to reach Calcutta via Vidyasagar Setu. The expressway has four lanes but the bridge has two. As a result, speeding vehicles try to cram into the bridge, leading to accidents.

Chaos at Santragachi as bridge shut partially

Howrah: With the Santragachi rail over bridge being partially shut to traffic for repair from Sunday, cars and buses are being held up for a prolonged period as the vehilces are allowed to ply on the damaged bridge using a single lane.

Officials said that it will be wise to travel along Salap and Amta Howrah Road to head towards Nabanna or Vidyasagar Setu to reach Kolkata or take Andul Road via NH6 to reach the city. PWD officials said that the queue of vehicles is expected to get longer from Monday.

On Sunday afternoon, the queue extended beyond Santragachi station and passengers had a harrowing time to reach Santragachi station and many had to carry their luggages and walk. Similarly, there was a long queue of vehciles moving out of the city.

However, trucks are not being allowed to ply along Kona Expressway, instead they are either diverted through Salap or asked to enter the city after taking Nivedita Setu via Dunlop. Some of them were also diverted on Sunday via Andul Road which were moving to NH6.

As the vehicles are stopped ahead of the rail over bridge and allowed to move on a single lane, the queue gets longer as the vehicles wait for their turns to cross the bridge. As a result, the pollution level is also increasing since the drivers do not turn off the vehicle engines with the hope to accelerate once they are on the bridge.

PWD officials and police have already suggested that the best way to reach NH6 is via Andul Road and for that the heavy vehicles have been asked to move in that direction. The heavy vehicles were also asked to move along Howrah Amta Road. Even the small vehciles can use this diversion.

However, Vikram Singh Grewal, president of co-ordination committee of West Bengal Truck Owners' Association, said that the administration did not inform anything about the change of route and they came to know about it from the media. He said that both the Howrah Amta Road and Andul Road pass through populated areas, where rickshaws, autos and e-rickshaws ply, hampering the smooth running of heavy vehicles. He said that they would write to the chief minister urging her to ban autos, rickshaws and e-rickshaws from plying on the main road till the diversion is on. Moreover, the roads along which diversion had been directed are narrow and unift for plying of heavy vehicles, Grewal said.

Santragachi bridge to be partly closed from Jan 17

 Kolkata: Santragachi railway overbridge will be partly closed to traffic from Saturday noon (January 17) for repairs. But traffic will be restricted from 11pm on Friday for a demo run.


"The repair will take a month. It will be done in phases because of the Madhyamik and HS examination in February," said PWD secretary Indevar Pandey. The first phase is from January 17 to January 31 and second from March 1 to 16. vehicles.

The bridge will be closed to heavy traffic, but buses and light vehicles will be allowed on the half the bridge. "No traffic will be allowed from 11pm to 5am, except for emergency vehicles," said Howrah police commissioner D P Singh.

Heavy vehicles will exit Kolkata through Andul Road and enter via Nivedita Setu- BT Road. All passenger vehicles and emergency vehicles are allowed on the bridge from 5am to 11pm, Monday to Saturday. But on Sunday no traffic will be allowed during the closure period

Vehicles entering Kolkata from NH2 or NH6 can also use the Salap-Howrah Amta Road-Shanpur-Toll Tax approach road all day and exit via the same route, Singh said. Again, vehicles from NH6 can use Alampur-Howrah Andul Road to reach the second Hooghly bridge and exit the same way. Goods vehicles moving towards NH6 can use Andul Road. But no goods vehicle will be allowed to enter Alampur to reach Andul Road from NH6. Port bound vehicles will be allowed from 10pm to 7.

Even partial closure of the bridge, a vital link between Calcutta and Howrah - and even for people coming from Burdwan, Hooghly and the two Midnapores - is likely to create major chaos, warn traffic experts.

More than 1 lakh vehicles - 40% of them small passenger vehicles - take Kona Expressway to Vidyasagar Setu to reach the city every day. Nivedita Setu has much less traffic so heavy vehicles will be diverted there.

The Howrah administration, police and PWD have held several meetings to chalk out alternative routes. They will have a tough time keeping traffic moving on one lane.