Kolkata,02 November (HS): A team of senior engineers,bridge experts and senior officials from various Government departments today thoroughly inspected the Tallah Bridge for more than three hours before considering the probable date for launching the ‘total demolition’ process of the 650 metre long North Kolkata’s main arterial road bridge next month.
After the final government decision to ‘demolish’ the nearly seven decades old bridge connecting the northern fringes of the city with proper Kolkata, was taken at a high level meeting here last night under the Chairmanship of Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and in presence of all stakeholders, the 12 member expert team decided to conduct one more inspection at the bridge today before zeroing on the demolition dates.
It may be recalled that the Chief minister had convened the meeting last night after the future of Tallah bridge remained undecided for over two months following the submission of a detailed report of the poor condition of the bridge along with their recommendation for its total demolition and the construction of a new one, by a Mumbai based expert committee led by world renowned bridge expert V K Raina and his team.
Though initially the government had decided to undertake a complete repair work of the existing bridge, later in view of subsequent inspections by various committees and bridge experts to look into the ground condition of the bridge, opted for its complete demolition and the construction of a new one at the same place within the next one or two years.
As a result,the bridge would continue to remain closed to heavy vehicles like bus,mini bus and trucks (since 29 September) and only small vehicles of less than three tonnes would be allowed to ply in spite of causing huge traffic jams in several parts of Northern fringes of the city and in North Kolkata daily, causing severe inconveniences to lakhs of people everyday.
Moreover,the government decided to ‘map’ the entire 25,000 square metre areas underneath Tallah bridge and have already started removing the entire upper tar layer from the 650 metre long bridge to reduce its overall weight in accordance with the recommendation of a high level Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, before the demolition.
Besides the Chief minister, the last night’s important meeting were attended by state Transport minister Subhendu Adhikari, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Homer Secretary Alapan Banerjee,City Police Commissioner Niraj Sharma and senior representatives of all stakeholders and bridge experts to discuss the issue threadbare,sources at state Secretariat ‘Nabanna’ informed here today.
