The stretch of EM Bypass at the Ruby crossing has finally been repaired after being in a battered state for a long time.
But the repairs, engineers involved in the project said, are “temporary”. And not all of Bypass has been as lucky as the Ruby crossing.
Several stretches on the Bypass were still crying out for repairs on Wednesday. These include the stretches below the Metro station being built at VIP Bazaar, in front of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, at the Avishikta crossing and near the Metro Cash and Carry store.
A senior engineer of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) said repairs on all these stretches would be completed by September 20.
Mayor Firhad Hakim, who is also chairperson of the KMDA, is supposed to inspect the city’s roads on September 20 evening.
Besides the Ruby crossing, the KMDA has repaired the stretch of the Ruby-bound flank of the Bypass under the Metro station coming up there.
“We conducted repairs at the Ruby crossing about four days ago. This is a temporary job. The road needs thorough maintenance and that has been due for long,” said the engineer on Wednesday.
“Temporary repairs will be done again if required.”
The stretch under Ruby station was repaired about two weeks ago. “That was a thorough repair. We laid one layer of non-bituminous base course and two layers of bituminous base course. This stretch will sustain for a long time,” said the engineer.
Both flanks of the stretch under the VIP Bazaar Metro station are still broken. Vehicles moving through that section swing from left to right because of the condition of the road.
A KMDA official said all broken stretches and the ones riddled with potholes will be repaired. “We have received a list of stretches with potholes from the police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. We are doing the repairs and work will be over by September 20,” the official said.
“If the repaired stretches develop potholes again because of heavy rain, they will be repaired once more,” the official said.
Engineers and officials of the KMDA and the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a subsidiary of the railways that is building the Metro corridor and the stations, inspected the affected stretches under seven under-construction stations last week. It was decided that the KMDA would repair the roads and the RVNL would bear the cost.
“We will undertake thorough repairs after the RVNL pays us. We are preparing estimates for thorough repairs and will send the figures to RVNL soon,” said the KMDA engineer. The temporary repairs will be undertaken before that. An RVNL official said they had handed Rs 15 crore to the KMDA will be done by the KMDA,” said the RVNL official.
