Roads in Salt Lake have turned into cratered tracks that put thousands of motorists at risk every day.
Several busy arterial roads that connect Sector V and New Town with the township are in such poor shape that police have placed guardrails and traffic cones near large potholes to ensure that motorists don’t drive over them or pedestrians fall into them.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation did patchwork repairs on some of these roads barely two months back.
The Telegraph drove through Salt Lake on Thursday to witness the plight of motorists.
Motorists headed to the township from Sector V are greeted by at least a dozen craters right after crossing the traffic signal at the Wipro intersection and JK Saha Bridge in front of the school service commission’s office in EE Block.
The road in front of Rabindra Bharati University’s Salt Lake campus, too, is riddled with potholes of varying sizes and depths.
The blacktop has completely worn off a 400m-stretch of Third Avenue in front of the Geological Survey of India building. The road leads to the Karunamoyee intersection — one of the busiest in Salt Lake — from Sector V.
An officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate’s traffic wing said accidents, especially those involving two-wheelers, are common on this stretch. “It’s a miracle that nearly all the riders who have met with accidents have escaped with cuts and bruises,” he said.
Motorists plying through the stretch of Third Avenue that leads to City Centre from the Karunamoyee crossing often miss potholes along the way. These potholes are right in front of the Central Park ground, where the Kolkata International Book Fair will be held from January 30.
The situation is such that the traffic police have placed a guardrail fitted with a red beacon on a manhole cover in front of Mayukh Bhavan, near the Bidhannagar Municipal Sports Complex, that has subsided.
Both flanks of the road in front of City Centre have huge craters right below the EastWest Metro viaduct.
Although patchwork repairs had been carried out a couple of months back, they have worn out in most places.
Several residents of the township The Telegraph spoke to said the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation had not undertaken even the basic repairs for more than five years.
Anita Mondal, deputy mayor of the civic body and also the mayoral council member in charge of roads, said paucity of funds was coming in the way of road repairs.
