KOLKATA: The subway at Lake Town crossing on VIP Road which is almost ready and will be inaugurated before the Pujas, is the first subway on VIP Road to have escalators going both ways at either end and is the first subway made by PWD in the city in the box jack pushing technology. This technology has enabled authorities to set it up below the busy VIP Road without any interference with the traffic movement on the surface.
PWD officials said the subway corridor is ready and escalators are getting final electrical and technical touches. The authorities are also working on another subway at Dum Dum Park crossing, which will take a few months more to be completed.
“The Lake Town subway is getting ready for a pre-Puja opening. We are also trying to finish work on the other subway as early as possible,” said Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose.
Officials said once the Lake Town subway is opened, the existing footbridge over VIP Road at Lake Town crossing — which is the pedestrian lifeline to enter Salt Lake from Lake Town and which is now in poor structural condition — will be shut and gradually dismantled. “The decades-old Lake Town footbridge, which has incurred reduced capacity for pedestrian load, will be made defunct after the subway is opened and will be slowly dismantled. Pedestrians who now use the footbridge will then use the subway,” said a PWD official.
Officials said the subway has been set up using advanced box-jacking technique, which required no traffic disruption or diversion on the surface. “No traffic restriction was required on the busy VIP Road stretch while tunnelling for the Lake Town subway. There was also minimal damage to the surface,” said an official. The same technique is being followed for the Dum Dum Park subway.
Both subways will be about 68m long, 6.5m wide and 2.7m high. The combined construction cost of the two underpasses has been pegged at Rs 26 crore. The authorities had started setting up the two subways from January 2020, but work was delayed due to the pandemic. Earlier, in 2018, the authorities had set up two subways at Golaghata and Sreebhumi crossings.
According to previous traffic estimates, on an average, close to 100 people cross the VIP Road at Lake Town crossing every minute during peak office hours and the subway will help to significantly reduce this pedestrian traffic on the road.
