Long stretches of EM Bypass descend into darkness after sundown every day, making it difficult to drive, cross the thoroughfare or even wait for a bus, a scary situation made worse by multiple diversions because of the under-construction New Garia-airport Metro corridor.
Defunct street lights line what was once Kolkata’s showpiece road. The stretch between Chingrighata and Ruby is darker than the rest of the Bypass.
The Ambedkar bridge, the stretch under the Parama flyover (between Silver Spring and the Dhapa crossing) and the 1km stretch between Tagore Park and Uttar Panchannagram were among the sections where only a handful of street lights were working when The Telegraph drove through the Bypass on Friday evening.
The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) was in charge of the maintenance of street lights on the Bypass till June.
The responsibility was handed to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on July 1.
While one agency was leaving and another taking over, neither apparently saw that street lights were not functioning on too many stretches.
A KMC official said many of the lights have been defunct since the KMDA was in charge of maintenance.
“It can’t be that so many lights became defunct in just eight days since we took over,” said a KMC official.
KMDA engineers, on the other hand, said no one had complained to them about defunct street light still the Bypass was in their custody.
Caught in between are the commuters.
Rai Bhose, a public relations professional, said the street lights on long stretches of the Bypass have not been working for at least a fortnight.
“The condition of the road is not very good. There are many undulations. It is difficult to drive through the Bypass at night with so many lights defunct,” she said.
“You can’t spot pedestrians crossing a road at night. Adding to the difficulty, there are so many traffic diversions on the Bypass because of the construction of the New Garia-airport Metro,” she said.
Residents of areas along or off the Bypass have to cross the road while returning home at night. The lack of illumination is a concern for them, too.
Sushanta Ghosh, councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s Ward 108, which covers areas to the east of the Bypass between Ruby and Uttar Panchannagram, said residents have complained to him about the lack of street lights.
“There have been complaints of snatching at night from some of these places. If the road is not well illuminated, people do not get the confidence to step out. Women feel secured if a road is well-illuminated,” Ghosh said.
Sandip Bakshi, mayoral council member in charge of lighting in the KMC, said the civic body would take up repairs soon.
“We will repair some of the lights immediately. A tender will be floated to repair the rest of the lights, but that will take some time as the process is long,” Bakshi said.
“The poor illumination of EM Bypass has been an old problem,” said a police officer. “Stretches of the Bypass have been identified as poor illumination zones in police reports.”