If you used the EM Bypass subway next to Hyatt Regency this week, chances are you had to tip toe over some spots hoping your shoes don’t get wet and you don’t slip.

The underpass, that was inaugurated in September, has developed leaks in its pipes and has water seeping onto the floor. “It’s such a beautiful underpass with tiled floors and bright lights but these wet floors are marring the beauty. One has to be careful not to slip and fall on it,” said Subhajit Saha, a pedestrian who was using the underpass on Tuesday.

Water on the floor

Both the underpasses near Hyatt and at the Beleghata Connector were commissioned to be built before the under-17 Fifa World Cup in 2017 but were finally opened before the Pujas this year.

Both are clean, well-lit and the walls have huge photographs of football legends. But the Hyatt subway floor often is wet in patches. Every few feet there are panels that cross the wall, ceiling and again the other side of the wall. At the bottom of the panels are openings for water to trickle down and a narrow drain guides the water to machines that pump it out.

“The water trickling down is from the underground water table. It’s natural and we were prepared for it,” said an official of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority that has got both the subways built. “But it’s possible that a leak has developed, in which case we shall ask the agency in charge of maintenance to repair it. They had repaired a portion of the system a few weeks ago too but it’s possible that another portion is leaking now.”

Paan stains on walls

The walls of the Hyatt subway have also got splattered with betel juice stains, especially around the entrances. The wall at the Purbachal side entrance has what looks like crayon scribbles and children from the adjacent Duttabad slums run up and down the corridor with their skipping ropes, badminton racquets and take rides on the escalator for fun.

“We have parks nearby but the big boys usually play football there. So some of us come here to play,” said Shabina Khatun, a Class VIII student who lives outside. She too says the water on the floor is an irritant. “The cleaners sometimes push the water out to the drains but it overflows again.”

While there were no cleaners to be spotted on Tuesday, the security guard said they lodge complaints with their authorities when the water leaks and repairs are usually carried out in three or four days. “We shall make a complaint again soon,” he said.

The Beleghata connector subway, a few hundred meters away from the Hyatt one, looks tidy, but the cleaners there say it’s hard work.

“There are two cleaners and three security guards who work in shifts round the clock. We try to stop pedestrians from littering but sometimes they defy us just to prove a point. They abuse us if we start cleaning during the day, saying the dust gets in their way, so we clean up after 11pm. The paan stains are the most stubborn to remove and we have to pour acid on them to do so,” said a cleaner there.

Nirmal Dutta, councillor of the Duttabad area around the Hyatt subway, is aware of how people, often from his own ward, tend to litter. “But the underpass is not under my jurisdiction. The security guards posted there need to be stringent. As for my ward, there are some 40,000 people living here and it’s not possible to personally appeal to everyone not to litter. At most, I can put up a “Do not litter” board at the subway gate,” Dutta said.

Water trickling down the walls of the service area. Mayukh Sengupta

Betel stain spit on wall. Brinda Sarkar