Manhole covers on several roads in New Town are at least six to eight inches above the carriageway surface, post-repairs, increasing chances of accidents for those travelling in cars and two-wheelers.
To add to commuters’ woes, speed-breakers made of reinforced plastic have broken in New Town and Salt Lake, exposing the iron rivets that held them in place.
The raised manhole covers, especially the concrete around them, and exposed rivets have made commuting through the townships extremely risky as they can puncture the tyres of vehicles or cause damage to the undercarriage.
In New Town, the stretch in front of Akankha Housing Complex and a road in DB Block are among the thoroughfares where manhole covers jut at least six to eight inches above the surface.
Several residents of DB Block told The Telegraph they are quite wary of driving down the stretch as the manhole covers can damage their cars and bikes and also cause accidents.
“These structures are right in the middle of the road,” said Avishek Chakraborty, a resident of DB Block in New Town.
“The difference between the road level and the height of the manhole covers is such that there is a high risk of severe damage to the undercarriage. At times drivers spot the raised manhole covers quite late and swerve dangerously to avoid driving over them. That can cause accidents.”
In Salt Lake, nearly all roads, including main arteries such as First Avenue, which connects the township with Ultadanga, are peppered with potholes and craters of varying size and depth.
This despite the fact that there has been less rainfall this year till now compared with the usual monsoon quota.
The Eastern Drainage Canal Road, which links Salt Lake with EM Bypass at the Chingrighata crossing, has multiple potholes as well as broken speed-breakers whose iron rivets have been exposed.
Some of these rivets are sharp and have punctured tyres of multiple vehicles.
Priyesh Jain, a resident of FF Block who rides his motorcycle to his workplace in Topsia every day, said the rear tyre got punctured when he was riding back home from work on Friday night.
“As it is, the lights along the road are defunct. I felt my bike wobble before I realised that I had a puncture. The entire road, like many others in Salt Lake, are riddled with potholes and the authorities are doing little to repair them,” said Jain.
A senior official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority, which provides civic services to New Town, said they would bring down the manhole covers to the road level in a couple of weeks.
An official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s road repairs department said they would try and get the rivets flattened out.