A safety audit of EM Bypass is in the works to make Calcutta’s most popular north-south link safer for vehicles and pedestrians.
The audit, for which the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has approached IIT Kharagpur, will find gaps in the infrastructure and suggest additions.
It will try to find out whether the duration of a signal needs to be tweaked or if a U-turn or a right turn needs to be shifted or stopped.
The audit will point out poorly illuminated stretches, whether a crash barrier is missing or a divider has gaps and suggest points where ambulances can be stationed to ferry road accident victims and whether more pedestrian islands are required.
One of Calcutta’s relatively high-speed corridors, the Bypass is also among the busiest.
Every morning and evening thousands of cars, buses and two-wheelers ply through the road to reach the heart of Calcutta or the tech hubs in Sector V and New Town.
Many vehicles to and from the airport also take EM Bypass, which has shrunk on some stretches now because of overhead Metro Railway lines and stations.
The 15.6km corridor has become prone to accidents, especially the Chingrighata crossing where multiple fatal accidents have happened.
The safe-corridor project will focus on reducing the number of accidents and improving the experience of travelling on EM Bypass.
The KMC has approached IIT Kharagpur’s civil engineering department to conduct the audit and give its
recommendations, an official in the civic body said on Monday.
“The audit will look into many factors. The objective is to turn EM Bypass into a safe corridor for pedestrians and vehicles. IIT Kharagpur will conduct the audit and make recommendations, while the KMC will implement the recommendations,” said a member of Calcutta’s road safety committee.
Each district in Bengal has a road safety committee. The committee in Calcutta is headed by the city police commissioner and includes engineers from the KMC, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and the public works department.
Sources said funds for the safety audit have been sought from the state transport department. Once the department’s nod comes, the work order will be issued to the IIT.
“We have approached IIT Kharagpur to conduct the safety audit. We are awaiting approval from the transport department. If everything goes according to plan, the work order is likely to be awarded within 15 to 20 days,” said a KMC official.
The state government has decided to make “crucial interventions” on some important roads to reduce the risk of accidents and make travel safer, the official said.
In Calcutta, the Bypass, which stretches between Ultadanga in the north and Dhalai Bridge in Garia in the south, was chosen for this project.
“There is still land on two sides of the thoroughfare to make changes if required,” said the member of the road safety committee.
The presence of two Metro lines — New Garia-airport and east-west — along stretches of the Bypass increases its significance.
“We expect more people to descend on EM Bypass around the Metro stations once these lines become fully operational,” said the road safety committee member.