Several roads dug up earlier for utility repairs or to lay underground utility lines are in a broken and battered condition, raising questions about why they were not restored following the repair jobs.
On Suhrawardy Avenue in Park Circus, police have had to install barricades so that vehicles can identify and avoid the broken stretch.
Nearly 6m-wide, the shoddy restoration, if any at all, is apparent on the entire length of the road between the Lady Brabourne College gate and the library of the Bangladesh deputy high commission.
“The stretch has become very risky for two-wheelers,” said a traffic police officer.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) undertook a project to replace the old sewer lines under the road with new ones. The work was finished a month ago, said a CMC official.
The stretch of Diamond Harbour Road between Mominpore and Kidderpore, is filled with potholes every one or two metres.
Mayor Firhad Hakim himself complained about the state of this road to civic officials last week.
The road was dug up earlier this year to lay underground sewer lines to carry water and sewage from a newly built drainage pumping station to a canal.
The restored road has not sustained even a part of the monsoon.
There are several schools along the stretch and many parents bring their children in two-wheelers that are at great risk of falling into a pothole, especially when they fill up with water after rain and cannot be spotted.
A KMC official said bricks and other aggregates were used to build the underlying layers of the roads — Suhrawardy Avenue and Diamond Harbour Road.
A top bituminous layer, too, was laid, but it is wearing out owing to rain.
“A road has to be left with soling for some time so that it compresses well. The bituminous layer is laid only after few months, by when the road must have settled down. We did not get the time in either of these roads but monsoon set in,” said an official. “We are looking for a dry spell to do some patchwork.”
Bridge No. 4
The flyover in Park Circus is dotted with gigantic craters of various shapes.
Vehicles have to continuously move right and left to avoid falling into a pothole, increasing the risks of collision with other vehicles coming from behind.
Driving two-wheelers is fraught with risks and more so while it is raining.
The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the custodian of bridge No. 4, did some patchwork on the bridge just before the onset of the monsoon.
Evidently, it was not good enough. “The patchwork has failed to be of much use and many craters have developed, mostly in places that were not touched upon before monsoon. We have to do a thorough repair of the surface,” said an official of CMDA.
“A bituminous layer will be laid before Puja and some patchwork will be done as a temporary measure.”
A traffic police officer said they have complained to the KMDA multiple times about the condition of the flyover’s surface.