Deployment of traffic police increased manifold from Saturday in the city’s shopping hubs such as Gariahat and New Market.
The special police deployment for the Puja will start on Wednesday, officers said.
With the Puja less than a week away, there has been a significant rise in the number of cars and people on the roads, prompting the police to increase their presence on the roads.
On Sunday afternoon, the last weekend before the Puja, The Telegraph found more than the usual number of traffic cops deployed at several busy city intersections close to shopping zones.
“Traffic deployment in areas under some traffic guards has been increased several times following a sharp rise in the volume of traffic and the number of pedestrians,” said an officer in the traffic department.
Barricades have come up at the intersection of Gariahat Road and Rashbehari Avenue to prevent shoppers from spilling on roads and disrupting traffic.
An officer at the crossing said they have been instructed to keep the traffic moving “at any cost”. Many pedestrians, mostly shoppers who stepped out of crowded footpaths to walk along the carriageway, were forced to stay within the barricades by the police.
“The biggest challenge before Durga Puja is to keep vehicles moving. If pedestrians start walking along main roads or crossing the roads at random, the average speed of vehicles gets reduced. So we are trying to ensure that pedestrians stay within the barricades,” said the officer.
Additional police deployments were also seen at Dhakuria, Shyambazar five-point crossing and the Rashbehari Avenue-SP Mukherjee Road intersection.
The speed of vehicles on both flanks of the Dhakuria bridge is affected if pedestrians walk across Gariahat Road in front of the Dakshinapan shopping complex in Dhakuria when the traffic signal is green for vehicles.
“Vehicles heading towards the Dhakuria bridge or alighting from the bridge have to reduce their speed considerably if people cross the road at the landing of the bridge, just in front of Dakshinapan, when the signal for vehicles is green. Hence, it is important to regulate pedestrians at the crossing,” an officer at Lalbazar said.
A large number of police officers were seen managing the crowd on Chowringhee Road and in front of New Market, where hundreds of people were on the roads. A large number of them were violating the traffic signal.
A senior officer said that apart from officers of the traffic guards, a large number of civic volunteers were also engaged to manage the pre-Puja traffic in popular shopping zones across the city.