Kolkata Metro’s Orange Line has closed a long-standing viaduct gap at Chingrighata after more than six years of delays, completing a critical section that had impeded progress on the New Garia to Airport corridor. The work at the busy intersection will facilitate remaining construction and testing along the route. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd is overseeing the 32-kilometre corridor and led the operations to finish the stalled segment. On Sunday engineers placed the final 31 metre concrete deck slab, closing the 366 metre gap and enabling structural continuity across the crossing. The new viaduct rises about 12 metre above the road and the project team completed the girder launching at the intersection within roughly 90 days. The contractor also hoisted the national flag on the completed span to mark the milestone. The Chingrighata bottleneck reflected a complex mix of technical and administrative obstacles centred on Pier 318, which was planned near the centre of the crossing. The sequence of milestones began in 2020 when work first encountered difficulties, with an IIT Kharagpur design approval arriving in August 2020 and a state no objection certificate issued in May 2023. Subsequent road works completed in December 2024 and traffic arrangements enabled girder erection in mid-May 2026. Police clearance had been a further hurdle, with delays of about fifteen months before Kolkata Police approved traffic plans and litigation repeatedly brought the matter before the Calcutta High Court for status updates. With traffic diversions and approvals in place, the contractor completed the remaining launching and slab works to close the gap. The general manager said the organisation was working towards a 31 December deadline to open the Beleghata to IT Centre section, which would cut travel time between New Garia and Sector V to about 30 minutes. The cleared bottleneck removes one of the longest-running obstacles on the Orange Line and should ease construction of the remaining stretches.