Light vehicle movement starts on NH-117 as engineers finish repair work on war footing
Kolkata: Light vehicle movement started along National Highway 117 in Diamond Harbour from Friday evening, with the engineers finishing work for restoration of the damaged portion of the road on war footing.
A part of the road had caved-in due to erosion of the bank of river Hooghly early on Thursday morning.
A team led by Principal Secretary of state, Public Works Department (PWD) Arnab Roy visited the place where the incident occurred and took stock of the progress of work.
He was accompanied by the District Magistrate of South 24-Parganas P Ulganathan and Superintendent of Diamond Harbour police district S Selvamurugan.
The officials later held a meeting and decided to open the road for movement of light vehicles from Friday evening. "A thorough repair of the road will be taken up and it will take another 15 days. It is only after this period that heavy vehicles would run along the stretch. The safety of the passengers is our top priority and we cannot compromise with it," a senior official of the district administration said.
It has been decided that sheet piling will be conducted to prevent further erosion of the river bank. "The administration, police and officials of National Highway Authority of India will jointly work to
normalise the movement of all modes of transport along the stretch," the official added.
The stakeholders have decided to form a WhatsApp group for information exchange during the period, till everything normalises. An official in the PWD department said that the road had caved-in due to extreme high tide.
Transport services from Kolkata to Kakdwip and Namkhana via Diamond Harbour was disrupted on Thursday, due to the subsidence of the road and vehicles were diverted from an alternative road via Sirakole near Amtala.
Work for beautification of the river bank in Diamond Harbour was going on for the last few months with MPLAD funds. "The work will begin again after the road is completely restored," the official added.
