Pedestrian refuge islands will be built at the Avishikta and Kalikapur crossings on EM Bypass to help people cross the road, police have decided after studying the traffic flow pattern and the number of people crossing busy stretches south of Ruby hospital.
Senior officers at police headquarters Lalbazar have had talks with RVNL, the implementing agency of the New Garia-Airport metro corridor, and the construction of the islands will begin once the two crossings are thrown open after the ongoing Metro work is completed.
A “refuge island”, a globally recognised concept in urban traffic management, is a small section of pavement where pedestrians can stop before resuming their walk across the intersection.
A few such islands have been built in the city — like at the Dorina and Exide crossings — where pedestrians who fail to cross from one flank of the road to the other during a single green signal can wait in the middle.
“Three refuge islands at the Avishikta intersection and one at the Kalikapur crossing will be built to facilitate pedestrians crossing over this stretch of EM Bypass, which has been widened as part of the New Garia-Airport Metro project,” said a senior police officer.
“One of the two islands at the Avishikta crossing will come up between the pillars of the Metro viaduct and the second near the canal where the road has been widened.”
The stretch of the Bypass near Avishikta the crossing stands widened to about 25 metres on the west, towards the Anwar Shah Road connector, and 12 metres on the east. The widened stretch stands over a canal where a traffic console box for controlling the lights will come up, officers said.
The intersection at Avishikta — with a road leading to the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector towards Jadavpur — is one of the busier ones along the Bypass and stands covered with guardrails now because of the Metro work.
As a result, all vehicles coming from the Ruby-end and headed towards the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector on the right can’t take a right turn. They have to travel ahead of the intersection, make a U-turn at Mandirpara to move to the opposite flank and reach the connector.
A refuge island will also be built at the Kalikapur intersection, about 100m from the Avishikta crossing.
“The island will be built between pillars 108 and 109 at Kalikapur, which now has a cutout for the crossover,” the officer said.
A senior RVNL official said: “We will take it up once we finish work on the stretch. The conversation with the police is a continuous process.”
Apart from these two crossings, there are at least four others on the Bypass — Patuli, Ruby, Tagore Park and Calcutta International School — which are very large and need pedestrian refuge islands, said a senior police officer.