Santoshpur Road that connects Jadavpur and EM Bypass in the south will remain shut to heavy vehicles for a week beginning Monday to facilitate the construction of a manhole.
Police said only small vehicles will be allowed to travel in either direction along the road that brings vehicles from Ajoynagar on EM Bypass to Sulekha More in Jadavpur.
Several government bus routes like AC-9, S-9 MW-1 and a few private buses of routes IA and IB along with minibuses of the Santoshpur-BBD Bag route will be diverted to facilitate the work.
“All heavy and medium goods vehicles will not be allowed to use this road for the next seven days. A police picket will be set up on either end of the roads,” said a senior police officer. “Officers will meet bus and minibus operators by Sunday and explain to them the new route.”
In the new scheme of things heavy vehicles including buses that are headed for the Sulekha crossing in Jadavpur from Ajoynagar intersection on EM Bypass will have to move further south along EM Bypass and reach the Patuli crossing.
Vehicles will then have to move towards the 45-bus stand, take a right turn towards Raja SC Mullick Road and arrive at the Sulekha crossing.Big vehicles that intend to reach the Ajoynagar crossing from Sulekha More will have to move towards 45 bus stand and then reach Patuli crossing before arriving on EM Bypass.
A section of engineers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the stretch on Santoshpur Road near the erstwhile minibus stand was prone to waterlogging and an existing manhole was not capable of draining out water that would collect after a heavy downpour. This would result in heavy traffic congestion on this connector during monsoon.
A section of residents have been complaining about this to the civic authorities for some time.
“We have decided to build a bigger manhole right in the middle of the road, which would be capable of draining out a larger volume of water,” said a senior engineer of the drainage division.
Engineers also added that a stretch of the road has suffered a depression at one point and even that would be addressed so that the ride becomes smoother along this artery that cuts through a pocket of densely populated patch in the southern part of the city.
The police said small vehicles would be made to move down a single lane around the part of the Santoshpur Road where the construction work would be done.