Bally Bridge to remain closed for three months for repairs

A flank of the Vivekananda Setu commonly known as Bally Bridge is likely to remain closed for around three months as repairing works will be undertaken. A high level meeting was held between senior police officers and Public Works Department’s officials in this regard on Thursday.

Repairing work will be undertaken on the flank on which vehicles heading towards Dakshineswar to Bally ply. It would not be possible to complete the repairing work within three months if plying of vehicles on the flank doesn’t remain restricted round the clock. The other flank will remain open. But the decision on movement of trains on the bridge during the repairing works is yet to come, though a senior engineer said that there will be no such problem if trains pass through the bridge when the work will be carried out.

The bridge that connects Howrah to Kolkata serves both road and rail. The construction of the bridge, which was also known as Willingdon Bridge, was completed in 1932 and it had taken around six years to construct it.

Several times the repairing work was undertaken. But this is the first time after decades when steps have  been taken for a major repairing work. The flank on which the repairing work will be undertaken is in bad shape for many years with two spots opposite Dakshineswar Kali Temple turning into accident prone zones.

Patch work was undertaken quite a few times but it was of no help. The reason being condition of the road gets worse a few months after the path work is undertaken.

It may be mentioned that A few months ago the repairing work of Santragachi Bridge was undertaken in two phases. Sources said that the necessity of repairing work of Vivekananda Bridge was discussed in the meeting in which decision was taken to repair Santragachi Bridge.

But the police officers pointed out the problems of carrying out repairing works of both the bridges at the same time. The reason being these two bridges are the gateway to Kolkata. Thus first the repairing work of Santragachi Bridge was undertaken and the work in Bally Bridge is all set to start.

During repairing work in Santragachi Bridge, the traffic was diverted through Bally Bridge and it will be just the opposite this time.