The two-year-long pending girder work to bridge a 366m-gap in Kolkata Metro’s orange line atop Chingrighata crossing was completed on Monday.
“The work on launching the girder at Chingrighata was completed on Monday morning. The work was stuck for around two years from 2024. After the new government gave its nod, the work was carried out over two weekends. Traffic at Chingrighata crossing had to be diverted for the work over those two weekends,” said a senior official of the Kolkata Metro.
The orange line connects New Garia metro station in southeast Kolkata to NSCBI airport via the IT hub in Sector V. The 32km-long metro line, originally supposed to be completed by 2016-17 under the Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime, was delayed for several years due to land logjams at several places.
Earlier this month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government nodded for its completion.
“The construction of the 366-metre viaduct was delayed for around two years because it required permission from the state government to block traffic near Chingrighata crossing to lift concrete segments for two spans – from pier 317 to 318 and pier 318 to 319. That permission did not come for two years,” said an official.
On September 3, 2025, a division bench of the Calcutta high court suggested that all stakeholders – Metro Railway, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), West Bengal government and the Kolkata Police – sit together to find a solution. The meetings failed to end the deadlock.
On December 23, 2025, the Calcutta high court directed the work to be completed by February 15, 2026. The then TMC-government, however, moved the Supreme Court.
Also Read:Supreme Court pulls up West Bengal government for stalling Kolkata Metro work
On March 23, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi dismissed the state’s petition and criticised the TMC government, observing that the state government exhibited an “obstinate attitude” stalling a public infrastructure initiative.
“The Mamata Banerjee government repeatedly denied permission for traffic diversion. RVNL had only sought night traffic blockades over two successive weekends to complete the work. The moment the political obstruction ended, the work moved at speed. For years, Bengal was told delays were “technical”. Turns out, the biggest technical problem was the TMC government itself,” Amit Malviya, head of BJP’s National IT department wrote on X.
This piece will be updated as and when TMC leaders respond to HT’s request for comments.
