A series of potholes and badly finished patchwork repairs on VIP Road and Jessore Road is stalling traffic and leading to snarls during peak hours every day.
Motorists headed to the airport are facing a near off-road like situation as the airport-bound flank of VIP Road is not only peppered with big and small potholes but also has loose stone chips that have worn away from the blacktop surface, making it tricky to navigate for cars and bikes.
Those headed to the airport from EM Bypass hit an exposed metal expansion joint at the base of the EM Bypass-VIP Road flyover because the bitumen surface has completely eroded away. At least six inches of the metal joint also protrudes onto the road.
Last week, Metro spotted multiple bikers dangerously braking at the last minute because the joint is not easy to spot from a distance.
a potholed stretch of VIP Road in Baguiati. Pradip Sanyal
“My bike nearly skidded after I hit the joint. I could not make out that there was such a protrusion. Fortunately, I did not get flung off the two-wheeler,” said Subhamoy Chakraborty, who works for a pharmaceutical company and was headed to a private hospital in Chinar Park.
Further down the airport-bound flank, the situation worsens near the Haj House in Kaikhali where not only have potholes formed but the surface has also worn off, because of which stone chips lie strewn across the width of both the airport and the Ultadanga-bound flanks of VIP Road.
Near the airport, a combination of craters, construction material on the side of the road and bottlenecks created by guardrails placed for the ongoing Airport-New Garia Metro line construction are triggering traffic snarls in rush hours.
A damaged stretch of Jessore Road near Belghoria Expressway. Pradip Sanyal
Motorists headed towards Belghoria Expressway and cars driving into the city from the expressway are facing regular snarls because of gigantic potholes on Jessore Road.
The problem gets compounded at night when trucks drive into the city from the expressway and from places like Barasat.
It takes 30 minutes during non-rush hours to travel between airport’s gate number 2.5 and the point where Belghoria Expressway meets Jessore Road. The stretch should not take more than 15 minutes to cover.
a potholed stretch of Jessore Road. Pradip Sanyal
Engineers of several state government agencies blamed the poor condition of roads on the absence of repairs ahead of the monsoon because of the Covid pandemic.
A resident of Lake Town said she had faced a huge traffic snarl around 9pm last Monday and had to take a detour to reach Birati.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate’s traffic wing said the width of the road near the airport gate number 1 crossing had reduced because of the Airport-New Garia Metro line construction.
“We have a regular deployment of traffic personnel at all hours to keep traffic moving. However, it is a very busy area... We have asked the agency that maintains VIP Road and Jessore Road to undertake repairs,” said the officer.