Small cars can now ply on Dunlop flyover
KOLKATA: Dunlop flyover, which remained closed for light motor vehicles since the collapse of a height bar on early Saturday morning, has been thrown open to small cars from Sunday morning after the repair work was done on a war footing.
It is assumed that the height bar collapsed after it was hit by a truck on Saturday morning. The incident caused traffic congestion in the area for a few hours. Senior officials of the state government, engineers from various departments and police personnel carried out the repair works throughout the day on Saturday and it was erected early on Sunday morning.
The vehicles were allowed to ply from Sunday.
The Barrackpore police have decided to conduct stringent vigil to ensure that no goods vehicles enter the flyover. There was major traffic congestion in the area on Saturday following the incident.
The traffic movement was diverted through BT Road after the vehicles on their way from Dakshineswar were caught in traffic snarl. There was congestion on BT Road as well because of the diversion. The top cops of Barrackpore police were out on the streets till late Saturday night managing traffic.
According to a senior police officer at Barrackpore Police Commissionerate, the normalcy was restored since early Sunday morning when the fly over was thrown open to light vehicles. The busy flyover had been closed for all types of vehicles for the past one-and a-half-month, following the Majerhat bridge incident. The height bar was constructed to restrict the movement of some vehicles and some repair works were also carried out. It was later opened for small vehicles.
It may be mentioned here that Dunlop flyover was mentioned on the list of bridges prepared by the state government whose health condition was not up to the mark. After the Majerhat mishap, various government agencies carried out examination in order to check the health conditions of some bridges and flyovers in the city and also in the districts.
Bengal government has taken up preventive measures to check the occurrence of a similar incident that occurred in Majerhat on September 4. A portion of the Majerhat Bridge caved in leading to the death of three persons.
It may be recalled that some representatives from the RITES had submitted a report to the state government saying that the condition of bearings situated on the top of the pillars were not in stable and some repair works needed to be done. Police are conducting a probe to ascertain the exact cause of the collapse of the height bar. Preliminary investigation suggests that a heavy duty vehicle might have hit the height bar and it eventually collapsed.
