A road in Tollygunge has been blocked in parts for six months to lay an underground drainage pipeline, leaving residents with the only option of using narrower roads where ambulances and fire brigades can hardly enter.
Radhagobinda Nath Sarani is the most important road for residents living along it to travel to Tollygunge Metro station or Deshapran Sashmal Road.
It is also the main exit and entry road for residents of Russa Road South 1st Lane, which is parallel to a portion of Radhagobinda Nath Sarani.
For many months now, either the road has been blocked or it has been in such a state that most residents are avoiding it. Autorickshaws that used to run between Jadavpur and Tollygunge Metro station can no longer use the road, leaving many residents with no other option but to walk to the Metro station under the scorching summer sun.
Many people, especially those with ailing and elderly family members at home, are worried over how to transport someone to hospital during an emergency or how fire tenders will reach a disaster site.
When The Telegraph visited the road on Wednesday, the first 200 metres had only a lane, wide enough for small cars, usable. No large vehicle could ply through that lane.
The rest of the road’s width was slushy and cars would get stuck if they entered that section. If two cars from opposite directions arrive together, it becomes difficult for either to move ahead.
A vehicle seen turning back because there is no signage to alert people that the road ahead is dug up. Pradip Sanyal
The next few hundred metres of the road had crushed bricks laid on the surface. Then comes a point where the entire width of the road is blocked. This stretch was dug up about 12 days ago, said a resident.
Local councillor Sandip Nandi Majumdar, who represents Ward 94 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, told The Telegraph that there would be no dug-up stretch after June.
He said the road had to be dug to lay underground drainage pipelines. A drainage pumping station has also been built and the pipelines will carry the sewage from
the pumping station to a canal.
With the monsoon about 48 hours away from south Bengal on Wednesday evening, it seems more suffering is in store for the residents.
To make matters worse, there is no signage to alert people that the road ahead is dug. Many cars come to the point where the road is blocked and then have to turn back.
A resident said that when the construction of the drainage pumping station started, the KMC had put up a board announcing that the project would be completed by December 2020. But the work got delayed because of Covid.
“The KMC has never informed the people when the laying of the underground pipeline will be over,” the man said.
A man in his 60s said: “We have not been able to use Radhagobinda Nath Sarani for many months because the road is dug up. My mother is in her 90s. I feel scared thinking what will happen if she falls sick. How will I take her to the hospital?”
Another resident echoed similar fears. “The road in front of my house has been dug up for several months. There is only one narrow lane behind my home that can be used by cars. In case of an emergency, it will be difficult for fire tenders or an ambulance to access the house,” the resident said.
The woman estimated that about 200 families are living under such conditions.
A KMC engineer said “we are almost done with the pipeline laying work”.