Pre-Kali Puja opening for Dakshineswar skyway !

Kolkata : A 340-metre long skywalk that will take visitors to the Dakshineswar temple gate will be thrown open before Kali Puja.

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) submitted a “fitness certificate” for the project to Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.

Railways consultancy RITES had inspected the skywalk as a superviser for the project.
The agency has, after checking the design of the structure and witnessing a load test, declared the elevated walkway “ready for use”.

“We will inaugurate the skywalk before Kali Puja. The date of inauguration will be decided soon,” said Firhad Hakim, urban development minister and the chairman of CMDA.

Rites had submitted its report to CMDA, which in turn submitted it before Justice Samapti Chatterjee of the high court on Tuesday. Justice Chatterjee has been monitoring the progress of the project.

The 10-metre-wide walkway would be of immense help to visitors to the temple. “Earlier pedestrians and cars would use the same road. It was chaotic. The skywalk will give visitors a separate space. Cars, too, would have a dedicated road,” said Kusal Chowdhury, trustee and secretary of Dakshineswar Kali Temple.

About 40,000 devotees visit the temple on non-festive days and the footfall increases three-fold on Kali Puja. The temple was set up in the 1940s and opened to visitors in 1855.
Once the skywalk is thrown open, no pedestrian will be allowed to take the road below, a CMDA engineer said.

The skyway has seven stairways for emergency evacuation and is fitted with fire safety tools such as alarms and water sprinklers.