Kolkata/Asansol : It will take two and a half months to repair the damaged portion of the Golden Quadrilateral near Asansol, which caved in on Tuesday, West Bengal chief secretary A K Deb said in Kolkata on Wednesday.

In the meantime, an alternative loop would be constructed bypassing the affected portion of the road for traffic to pass. For this, a Bailey bridge would have to be erected on a canal and some land, too, would have to be arranged.

Presently, the traffic on NH-2 was being diverted via a circuitous route, using a network of state highways, but PWD minister Kshiti Goswami feared if the heavy traffic on NH-2 used this road for a long time the state highways would be badly damaged.

On Thursday, National Highways Authority of India chief general manager R P Indoria will come to Asansol to inspect the affected site. NHAI will form a committee of experts to study the feasibility of widening the 80-km stretch of NH-2 from Raniganj to Dhanbad, said NHAI project director Nirmal Mondal.

A detailed report, along with a video footage, has been sent to New Delhi. The findings of the committee will be taken into consideration while preparing the plan for the six-lane expansion of this stretch.

Mondal said the 40-km Asansol bypass from Barakar to Raniganj was built by PWD in 1980 and later handed over to NHAI. While building the Golden Quadrilateral, the old road was expanded and renovated to four lanes in 2000. For further expansion to six lanes, NHAI has plans for two new stretches on either side, each 3.5 metre wide, from Dankuni to Dhanbad. “Officials of Eastern Coalfields Limited and Geological Survey of India will drill holes into the site to determine the exact picture of the underground instability,” he added. While inspecting the site, Asansol divisional railway manager Ajay Rawal found that the cracks have moved closer to the main broad gauge track. The danger level is 30 metre. Basudeb Acharia, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways, has also apprised railway minister Lalu Prasad of the incident.

Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority chairman Bansa Gopal Choudhury said he has sent a fax to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union surface transport minister T R Baalu. A regional director of the surface transport ministry would arrive in Asansol on Wednesday, he added.

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb will hold meetings with Fort William for army assistance. A high-level meeting has been convened in the evening with representatives of the chamber of commerce and talks are on with the district magistrates of three districts for possible diversion of railway freight traffic movement. The state administration has asked ECL CMD Dipak Chakraborty to conduct a survey of the underground land condition in Asansol subdivision and take steps like filling up the vacuum by sand stowing.

Source: TOI(Kolkata-epaper)

Entry Filed under: Kolkata Traffic News