The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has proposed to the police that they give the civic body a list of bad roads in the city once in 10 days or a fortnight, instead of twice a year or so.
KMC officials said civic engineers mooted the proposal at a meeting with police officers on Wednesday.
“Frequent lists of roads with potholes or broken surfaces will allow faster repairs,” said a KMC engineer.
“If we get a list of bad roads after several months, too many stretches may need to be repaired and the process will take a lot of time. Also,the roads will remain broken and battered for weeks or months.”
Kolkata police usually give a list of bad roads to the KMC twice a year — before the onset of the monsoon and ahead of the Puja. Separate lists are also sometimes handed to the civic body during the monsoon.
“We requested the police to give us a list of roads with potholes, craters and broken surfaces at shorter intervals — once in 10 days or a fortnight,” a KMC engineer said.
“This will allow faster repairs. We do our own monitoring and carry out repairs. Frequent lists from the police will draw our attention to the stretches that we may overlook,” the engineer said.
A police officer who refused to be named suggested that lack of regular reporting may not be the entire problem.
“We have common WhatsApp groups with the KMC where we keep posting about bad roads or lack of lights on a regular basis. We are always in touch with them,” the officer said.
Potholes are a common sight on many roads in Kolkata and Bidhannagar.
The Telegraph spotted craters on the Park Circus connector and on the No. 4 bridge on Wednesday.
There are potholes on the eastern slope of the Ballygunge bridge, on stretches of EM Bypass, near the slopes of the Baghajatin bridge onEM Bypass and on the Salt Lake bypass.
Most of EM Bypass is now looked after by the KMC.
A small stretch of the Bypass, between the Dhalai bridge and Kamalgazi crossings, is maintained by the CMDA, which was earlier in charge of the entire artery. Kolkata’s roads attain very poor shape, with multiple potholes and craters, during the monsoon.
Engineers have always said that poor drainage, which leads to waterlogging, is one of the main reasons why the top layer wears off, resulting in the formation of craters.
Waterlogging is also caused by the improper slope of some roads.