Police have listed six pothole-riddled thoroughfares in Behala and Thakurpukur for immediate repairs by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC).
Behala hosts a number of big-ticket Durga pujas that attract huge crowds. The police have written to the civic body that it would be difficult for them to make the necessary arrangements for crowd circulation unless the roads are repaired in time, officers said.
The arteries mentioned on the police list are Diamond Harbour Road, ML Gupta Road, Biren Roy Road (West), Santosh Roy Road, MG Road and Raja Rammohan Roy Road.
For over a month now, residents of Behala, Jadu Colony, Manton, Shakuntala Park, Sarsuna Township and Greenfield have been struggling to commute as most of the roads have been dug up for upgrade of the underground drainage network, undertaken as part of the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP).
“We have said the repairs must be completed by the first week of October for us to start making preparations for the Puja. The roads must be made fit for traffic movement so that we don’t face any problem in maintaining crowd circulation,” said one of the officers responsible for managing traffic in Behala and Thakurpukur.
Durga Puja this year starts on October 20.
The officer said the list had been drawn up following joint inspections by the police and representatives of the CMC.
Santosh Roy Road, which connects Behala and Tollygunge, was shut to traffic for two months from August to facilitate the underground work. The dug-up portions have been shoddily repaired.
Biren Roy Road (West), too, shares the same fate and many residents are forced to take a detour or start early.
“Behala’s roads are in a mess. App cabs refuse to come. Yellow taxis charge a premium,” said Niranjan Das, who stays near the Behala tram depot. “Most of the roads are dug up in a way that it is difficult to commute with the ailing and the aged.”
Prone to waterlogging, several parts of Behala, Sarsuna and Thakurpukur have been witnessing repair and upgrade of underground pipelines for over a year and a half.
The challenge of managing traffic in the area amidst intermittent rain featured at a recent meeting of police officers and civic engineers.
Sources said the police had initially wanted the repairs to be wrapped up by the middle of September, but that could not be done. “The rain needs to stop before repairs can start,” said an official in the CMC’s roads department.
Civic body engineers said they would try to carry out patchwork repairs of the roads by the Puja. “Time is a constraint for thorough repairs. We will try and make these thoroughfares motorable,” an engineer said.
The police have also urged the PWD to install additional lights under the Metro viaduct on DH Road.