Stretches of the Park Circus connector, EM Bypass, Ruby rotary, Diamond Harbour Road, Mukundapur and NSC Bose Road in Tollygunge will be taken up for immediate repair because they feature on lists prepared by traffic guards of thoroughfares in terrible shape.
The repairs will comprise filling up craters that have surfaced on these roads. The work is likely to begin in the next fortnight, a police officer said.
At least three agencies have roads in their charge in the city — the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the Public Works Department and the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.
All three agencies will be called into action for the pre-Durga Puja repair work. “In some stretches where the work of laying of underground pipes is on, the road surface will be made motorable so that vehicles can move,” said a senior officer, who has been coordinating with traffic guards across the city for an assessment of road conditions.
With less than two months left for Puja — this year Durga Puja begins on October 1 — officers in charge of all the 26 traffic guards covering the city’s roads have begun drawing up lists of roads under their respective jurisdictions that need repair.
Barring a few, most of the traffic guards have informed the police headquarters in Lalbazar about the thoroughfares that need repair. Officers said the remaining list of roads will reach Lalbazar by August 15.
“Apart from some of the main thoroughfares like EM Bypass, Diamond Harbour Road, Park Circus connector and Deshapran Sasmal Road, we have also received requests for repair of several smaller roads that serve as key connectors,” said a senior officer.
The exercise of seeking lists of roads for repairs from traffic guards follows a recent directive by police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal instructing senior officers across all divisions to start preparations for Puja.
“Soon after, all traffic guards were instructed to draw up a list of roads that need repairs, stretches that need adequate illumination, spots where directional signages are missing and areas where pruning of trees is necessary,” the officer said.
“Most of the officers in charge have already sent their lists and we have taken it up with executive engineers of the different departments,” he said.
Senior PWD and KMDA officials said they were preparing to start repairs within a fortnight after assessing the extent of damage that the roads have suffered.