The width of Jibanananda Setu, which connects the Bypass-Anwar Shah Road connector to Jadavpur in south Kolkata, needs an immediate expansion to allow faster movement of vehicles through both flanks, East Jadavpur police have proposed.
In a recent letter to the police headquarters at Lalbazar, officers at the East Jadavpur traffic guard have written that vehicles, particularly those headed towards Jadavpur police station from EM Bypass, are forced to slow down while moving in a single file through the bridge, resulting in snarls on the Anwar Shah Road connector.
Vehicles headed for the Bypass, too, struggle to move in a single lane on the bridge.
“Even if the portion of the bridge above the railway tracks is expanded to accommodate cars in two lanes instead of one on each flank, it would ease congestion,” said an officer of the traffic guard.
“Traffic load has gone up several times on the Anwar Shah Road connector. A growing number of motorists prefer this connector to the Bypass-Rashbehari Avenue connector.”
Named after the poet Jibananda Das, the bridge was built before the inauguration of the Anwar Shah Road connector in 2007. Each flank is around 3.5 metres in width, just enough to accommodate vehicles in a single lane.
The flank through which vehicles travel towards Jadavpur has three sharp bends because of kinks in the adjoining boundary wall of the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute. That further slows down the vehicles.
The proposal from the East Jadavpur traffic guard on expansion of the bridge also talks of acquiring a small parcel of land from the sprawling campus of the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute to allow widening of the road space.
“If a small portion of the institute’s area is made available for expanding the road, then vehicles can take a free left turn to move towards Jadavpur University after descending from the bridge,” the officer from the traffic guard said.
The Anwar Shah Road connector has emerged as a key thoroughfare over the last few years and the police said any slowing of vehicles on this road results in snarls on several stretches within a few minutes.
“The queue of vehicles headed towards Jadavpur often stretches till Sapuipara More on the connector. A few days back, we had to divert vehicles from Garfa Main Road and Ramlal Bazar to clear the congestion,” said an officer of the East Jadavpur traffic guard.
The traffic guard was set up in 2019 after the authorities realised that the vehicle count on the connector and its adjoining roads was growing exponentially and a dedicated traffic guard was required.
“We prefer this stretch compared with the Rashbehari connector to reach Tollygunge,” said Sukumar Aich, an Anandapur resident. “But over the last few months, this connector has become a nightmare because of the number of car owners who opt for this stretch.”
The rapid rise in the vehicle count prompted the Kolkata police in April to declare the entire Anwar Shah Road connector, except three pockets, a no-parking zone.