The roads across Salt Lake that were already in a state of despair, now have even larger and deeper potholes and craters as patchwork repairs carried out by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in the run-up to the Pujas have peeled off. '
The civic body had undertaken patchwork repairs on a few arterial roads and streets leading to popular Durga Puja pandals in the township. But in most places, the layer has peeled away exposing the brickwork underneath.
On Wednesday, The Telegraph drove across all three sectors of the township and everywhere the roads were in a sorry state. Motorists headed to Salt Lake from EM Bypass are greeted by a series of deep craters right at the EM Bypass-Broadway intersection in front of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Complex.
Loose stone chips from these potholes get kicked up by the wheels of passing vehicles and put pedestrians at risk as they fly about like missiles every once in a while.
In front of City Centre Salt Lake, one of the most popular hangout spots of the township, the traffic police have placed guardrails and cones to ensure cars and two wheelers don’t drive into these broken patches unsuspectingly.
Potholes on a road at GC Block; (right) a damaged stretch near the Broadway-EM Bypass intersection near the SAI Complex
Both the Bidhannagar College-bound and the Central Park-bound flank of the road in front of the mall have multiple potholes and undulations with jagged edges.
These craters put thousands of motorists and two-wheeler riders at risk every day. The situation is similar near the FE Island where the entire blacktop has worn away.
The roads inside all the blocks of Sectors I, II and III, too, are in a rundown state. And those that had received patchwork repairs before the Pujas are again riddled with craters and potholes as the layers applied during the repair did not even last a month.
“The civic body had done patchwork repairs on the stretch of road outside our house. The labourers finished work on Panchami night. Now, all these repairs have given way to even bigger craters than the earlier ones. Driving a car or riding a motorcycle in Salt Lake is now a nightmare,” said Rishi Bhattacharyya, a resident of IB Block.
Krishna Chakraborty, the mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said that they would carry out a series of patchwork repairs once again.
“We will begin repairs once we get a series of dry days without rain,” said Chakraborty.
Asked why the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation was again banking on patchwork repairs eve though such measures are not lasting even a month, the mayor said that they have sent a Rs 140-crore road-repair proposal for all its 41 wards in Salt Lake and Rajarhat to the state urban development department for approval.
Thorough relaying of the roads in these areas will be done after the civic body gets clearance from the urban development and the state finance department, mayor Chakraborty added.