Kolkata: Tala bridge reopens a day before Mahalaya

KOLKATA: Opening of the Tala bridge reduced a lot of congestion and saved time for commuters, who take the bridge connecting Shyambazar with BT Road. On Saturday, the bridge was opened to light vehicles plying towards Shyambazar.
Daily commute suddenly became easier for Sahadeb Das, who goes to Esplanade every day to attend office. A resident of Dunlop, Das rides a bike to reach his office. He usually takes the Chitpur Lockgate bridge from Bagbazar to BT Road. On Saturday, he was surprised to find a thinner traffic on the Lockgate bridge. "Cops asked me to take the Tala bridge if I wanted. It was a breezy drive on Tala bridge and I was so relieved," Das said.
Cops had earlier diverted the Central Avenue-bound vehicles through Baranagar Road, Sinthi More, Cossipore Road and Chitpur Bridge. Apart from daily commuters, Cossipore area has a lot of warehouses and goods vehicles that take that route. Over the past two and a half years, this created a bottleneck for the vehicles taking the Gopal Lal Thakur Road to reach Lockgate bridge.
Kolkata traffic police on Saturday said that with smaller vehicles using Tala bridge, jams have reduced. Cops also said the PWD has informed them that buses will be allowed to take the bridge from Chaturthi, September 29. "Once that happens, all route buses will be taking Tala bridge. Only two routes - 43 and 242 -will continue using the Lockgate flyover. There will be no restriction on smaller vehicles using the Lockgate flyover though its volume is expected to be minimum," said an officer from Shyambazar traffic guard.
For Aranita Chowdhury - a Sinthi resident who has a shop at Shyambazar - this came as a blessing before the puja. "This is the peak time for business and I often have to shuttle between my residence and the shop. Using the Tala bridge will not only save time for us, but we will also save up on fuel," she said. Chowdhury's 10-year-old son Ayushman studies at a school on Park Street. Taking the kid to school has also become a lot easier for the parents now.
Traffic snarls eased to a large extent on the RG Kar stretch that was witnessing jams when buses - along with other smaller vehicles - were being diverted through it. "I have to take my mother for chemotherapy at a hospital off Bypass. We started 45 minutes earlier than other days to avoid any probable traffic jam. But the traffic was so smooth that we did not even face a single snag," he said.
Indra Biswas Road, however, continued to witness heavy flow of traffic even on Saturday morning. "It seems that many commuters are not aware of the new routes. This will ease in a couple of days and the neighbourhood will become quiet again," said a local resident.