A stretch of EM Bypass in Patuli that has been attracting visitors who spend time along a water body leaving cars parked next to the footpath and creating congestion on the Garia-Ruby flank almost every evening.

This has drawn the attention of police. In a letter to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), the police urged officials to install iron guard rails along the footpath, extending over 800 metre, to prevent the crowd from spilling onto EM Bypass.

The footpath, with rows of tea stalls and snack joints, lacks railings.

Car owners park vehicles on one side of the road and walk to the shops on the other side of the footpath adjoining the water body.

Senior officers have earmarked a space where these cars can be parked.

“We have identified a parking space near the approach to the Baghajatin rail overbridge flyover from Patuli end where close to 30 vehicles can be accommodated,” said a senior police officer overseeing traffic movement in the area.

“The vehicles parked near the Patuli water body, parallel to the footpath’s kerb, can be shifted to this alternative site. The traffic flow towards Ruby from Garia along EM Bypass won’t be hit then.”

The Baghajatin overbridge connects Patuli with Hiland Park on the Bypass.

Decorated with fluorescent lights and replicas of the Howrah bridge and Dakshineswar temple and a children’s park, the Patuli lakeside has been witnessing a steady rise in the flow of visitors in the evenings over the past few years.

To many who would turn up on the weekends the lakeside is almost like “the Babughat of the east”, said one visitor.

Another said this was no footpath but “foodpath”.

The footpath on this stretch has seats making it an adda zone. Many of those who frequent the place are the elderly. The paved footpath makes it a comfortable walk for those who want to take a stroll around the lake.

“We want visitors to enjoy the place and not get intimidated by too many restrictions. But the stretch where cars remain parked is earmarked for buses to move down the ‘bus bay’,” a senior police officer said.

With footfall around the water body rising steadily, the police have built a pedestrian refuge island at the Patuli crossing on EM Bypass to help people cross over.

A foot overbridge, too, has been built to ease pedestrian movement.

But police officers admitted the overbridge had yet to become popular among road users.

“Once the railing comes up on the footpath around the lakeside there would be no crowd spillover onto the thoroughfare. We will conduct a survey and then decide how to go about it,” a senior KMC official said.