Click to play videoKolkata: A fourth road bridge across the Hooghly is almost ready in Kolkata. It is expected to decongest the other three bridges and provide key links to highways on the other side of the river. Interestingly, it will also halve the distance between Singur and the Kolkata airport.
The last leg of construction of this Rs 1,000-crore bridge, which connects four national highways, has just been completed, 13 years after it was conceived.
"We actually have kept this cost frozen from 2000 onwards. When we finalised our agreement in 2001 with the government, even with the delays that has happened, we have not increased our project cost,” Managing Director, Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Company, Ravindra Verma says.
Built with funds from the US and Malaysia along with Larsen and Toubro on build-operate-and-transfer basis, this six-km long bridge is probably the cheapest in the world on the basis of its size.
It's the fourth in Kolkata across the Hooghly and is expected to carry at least 40,000 vehicles a day.
Completion of this bridge is certainly a milestone in improving road connectivity in West Bengal. Yet, two of the four highways that it connects are in shambles and no one knows when they are going to get a facelift.
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