No heavy vehicles on Talla Bridge from Sunday

Kolkata: Vehicles above 3 tonnes along with state-run and private buses will not be allowed on Talla Bridge from Sunday. However, small and medium vehicles and pedestrians will be allowed on the bridge.

The state Transport department will issue a notification announcing the diversion and curtailment of bus routes and it will be effective from Sunday morning. The state government has requested Eastern Railway and Metro authorities to increase the frequency of trains during the day. RITES and the state Public Works Department will conduct further survey to decide the fate of the bridge after the Pujas.

A high-level meeting to fix the diversion of routes and other issues related to the bridge was held in Nabanna on Friday afternoon. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Chief Secretary Malay De, Transport Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam and other senior officials of the state Transport department were present at the meeting as well, along with state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas, state minister for Public Works department, also attended the meeting.

Anuj Sharma, Commissioner of Kolkata Police, also attended the meeting along with his colleagues in Barrackpore and Bidhannagar Commissionerate.

Hakim said that around 65 people spreading over 200 families who used to live below Talla bridge have been shifted and work is on to set up temporary structures to rehabilitate them. He said 600 state-run and private buses ply along the bridge every day.

The Transport Secretary said that the department, along with city police and Barrackpore is working on the alternate route which will be effective from Sunday. He said steps have been taken so that the people from Barrackpore and other areas of North 24-Parganas who come to the city during the Puja are not inconvenienced.

He said the notification regarding diversion and curtailment of routes of the buses will be announced in the media, both print and electronic, on Saturday.

Anuj Sharma said meetings have been held with the local traders and they have ensured that there will not be any problem in transporting essential commodities to the city from northern suburbs.

Sources informed that according to the plan decided in the meeting, some of the bus routes will be short-terminated. It will be done for those routes which have their terminuses near Talla Bridge. Other bus routes will be diverted accordingly.

Several roads which are used for one-way traffic movement may be used for both-way movement. However, the final diversion plan by the state Transport department is expected to get published on Saturday.

There will also be speed restriction on the movement of the vehicles allowed to ply on the bridge. The limit has been set at 10 kilometre per hour.