Flooded for at least a week, several key roads in New Town have caved in at many places.
The affected stretches have been cordoned off with guardrails and bamboo barricades.
New Town has well-laid and level blacktop in most places and many residents head out for drives around the township.
The cave-ins have taken residents by surprise.
Among the worst-hit pockets is the stretch in front of Rosedale Garden Housing Complex in Action Area III. A large circular portion of the road that branches off the Major Arterial Road Extension and leads to the housing complex has caved in.
Another stretch of the road in front of Rosedale Garden Housing Complex that has caved in. Telegraph photo
The crater, which spreads across the entire width of the road, is more than 5ft deep and at least 20ft in length. The New Town authorities have erected a bamboo barricade right at the intersection of the road and the Major Arterial Road Extension.
“We had to cordon off the entire road as the crater is quite deep and spread across the entire width of the thoroughfare,” said an official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA).
Cars and bikes headed to the complex as well towards water tank No. 20 were diverted through the opposite flank.
Ranjan Basu, the president of the Rosedale Garden Housing Complex Residents’ Association, said they were shocked to learn that the road right in front of their complex had caved in.
A cave-in in front of Sukhobrishti Housing Complex in Action Area III of New Town. Telegraph photo
“First we had to deal with waterlogging, and now the roads in the township are collapsing. We wonder what lies ahead. What is going to happen if there is another downpour soon,” said Basu.
The situation is similar in front of Sukhobrishti Housing Complex, where several stretches have caved in.
To add to the residents’ and commuters’ woes, a number of affected stretches are still waterlogged. The water makes it impossible to spot the subsidence or craters.
“We have erected bamboo sticks where we could make out that the road has subsided. All the roads here were under water for more than seven days after the rain stopped. Even now some stretches are flooded. It is a very dangerous situation here,” said Mainak Kamrar, the secretary of a residents’ association at Shukhobrishti.
An NKDA engineer said waterlogging destroyed the bituminous surface of the road and led to water seepage, weakening the soil below the asphalt layer. “Water seeps through a flooded road and weakens the soil below, leading to cave-ins,” the engineer said.