The Calcutta Municipal Corporation will put up signage alerting people about a pit in the middle of a road, about 50m from its headquarters, a civic official said on Thursday.

The announcement came almost a month after the pit had been dug up on Hogg Street, near the north gate of New Market, to refurbish a sewer line.

The Telegraph had on Thursday reported that motorists and two-wheeler riders have to manoeuvre their vehicles through hawkers and shoppers to reach an almost dead end on Hogg Street because of the pit. The reason: no signage to alert them about the blocked road.

Market Street, temporarily restored on Thursday

On Thursday, this newspaper could not find any signage. Asked about it, a CMC official said: “We have ordered signage. We will put it up at strategic locations.”

In the absence of any signage, vehicles kept making the mistake throughout the day and moved right up to the pit before doing a U-turn.

The official said the CMC had requested police to post a cop there to stop people from reaching the pit in their vehicles. “The police have promised to depute personnel to manage the stretch so that no vehicle reaches the pit.”

There were no cops at the crossing of Chaplin Square and Hogg Street, from where vehicles turned right towards the north gate of New Market, where the road has been dug up.

The Telegraph's report on thursday The Telegraph

“We are removing silt from a British-era brick sewer... the silt has partially blocked the line. We are raising the height as well,” the CMC official said.

The civic body did a rudimentary restoration of Market Street on Thursday afternoon. The refurbishment work under Market Street was done before work on Hogg Street started. The two roads are contiguous.

A resident of the area had said on Wednesday that the Market Street work had ended more than a month ago but the road was yet to be restored.

On Thursday, the CMC levelled the road with bricks to facilitate the movement of vehicles. “We have done a very basic restoration for now. A proper restoration of the road will start soon,” the CMC official said.