A load-testing report was validated by IIT-Kharagpur, and the restored Tala bridge was issued a certificate of safety by Eastern Railway.
Traffic will be allowed to cross the bridge on Thursday.
In addition to being able to use the bridge’s 385-ton load limit, both light and heavy freight vehicles will now be able to use it. As part of the police’s traffic control plan, only light cars will be allowed to drive up to the end of the bid.
Eastern Railway’s overpass under Tala railroad tracks spans 240m of the 750m road. At 5.30 p.m. Thursday, Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the new bridge, 29 months after the previous one was destroyed.
For the time being, heavy goods vehicles will continue to use Cossipore Road, which runs parallel to BT Road, before meeting it at Dunlop More, just as they did during the bridge reconstruction, so as not to disrupt the current traffic arrangement before and during the bid.
Commuters are palpably relieved that the complicated routes are no longer a part of their daily journey tribulations.CPWD retired civil engineer Subhranghshu Saha, a Dunlop resident who travels to Shyambazar daily, believes the new bridge will become an icon for north Kolkata.