Roads in Kolkata

On The Anvil

• Flyover At Chingrihata
  
• Second Railway overbridge at Bagha Jatin
  
• Service Road From Hiland Park To Patuli

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) will build a flyover from the Beleghata intersection to Captain's Bheri on the EM Bypass, over the Rajarhat flyover at the Chingrihata intersection. The 16-metre flyover, to cost about Rs 70 crore, will be built on a single pier.

"The proposed flyover will have a double-lane carriageway. It will put an end to the regular traffic snarls at the Chingrihata intersection. The stretch is narrower than the road on both sides and is thus a bottleneck," said Debdas Bhattacharya, the director-general of the CMDA's traffic and transportation department.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's statue at the crossing will be cleaned, painted and illuminated by two lamp posts as part of the scheme. The HRBC will also install decorative railings around its base.

The statue, sculpted by Nagesh Yoglekar, was unveiled by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) in 1969. Since then, the structure and its surrounding areas have not been beautified.

"Netaji's birthday is only two months away. The focus of our makeover will be on his statue and adjacent Bhupen Bose Avenue, RG Kar Road, APC Road, Bidhan Sarani and BT Road, up to its intersection with Canal West Road," said municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

Sadhan Pande, an MLA from the Maniktala area and a member of the urban development committee of the Assembly Standing Committee, appealed to the civic body to beautify roads in north Calcutta.

"As Calcutta is growing along the southern fringes, the need for easier and smoother access to the heart of the city is felt every day. So, we have decided to construct a flyover that can be used by cars for a toll fee," PWD minister Kshiti Goswami said on Monday.

PLAN OF ACTION

• A 12-km flyover from Budge Budge to Taratala
  
• First phase between Budge Budge and Jinjirabazar
  
• Project cost Rs 600 crore one-third to be borne by the state and the rest by private players
  
• Monorail for mass transit below flyover

According to sources in the PWD, the government has already held discussions with real-estate developers like the Eden Group and the United Credit Belani Properties, which have "evinced interest" in joining hands with the PWD for the project.

If work is not completed within a year and a half, the agency will bear the cost for the delay.

Urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya announced the decision to start the projects in a recent meeting. He also set the deadline.

Water treatment and solid waste management projects, worth about Rs 700 crore, comprise the largest chunk of work. Construction of a water treatment plant in Padmapukur, Howrah, the third phase of Garden Reach water treatment plant and solid waste management projects in Serampore, Mahestala and Budge Budge are slated to start in November.

However, the minister said Rs 10 crore was needed to repair the Siliguri-Mainaguri-Jalpaiguri section of the national highway. He discussed the condition of NH31 and NH-31D with senior officials of his department in Jalpaiguri today.

Travelling on NH31D has become a nightmare after potholes appeared in major portion of the road.

"It is tough to believe that we are travelling on a national highway. The road has so many small pools of water," said Sanatan Choudhury, a bank employee who travels on the Siliguri-Dhupguri route everyday.

Save a few patchworks by the PWD in the past couple of months, little has been done to make sure that rides on the road are trouble-free. Pranab Mani, the secretary of the Siliguri Inter-District Minibus Owners' Association, said at least one bus broke down because of the poor condition of the highway everyday.

Nicco Park to Wipro

What: The 1.5 km stretch between Nicco Park and Wipro is the worst affected, with nearly two-thirds of the road blocked by the construction of a flyover. The space left — hardly four metres — is unable to handle the 7,500 cars that ply daily. It is also heavily damaged because of the ongoing construction and the rains.

There are deep craters after every few steps. On the rest of the road, the bitumen has come off, making the surface uneven.

Motorists’ woes: “It’s a torment going through the stretch before I turn left from the Wipro crossing to reach my workplace. The roads in and around Sector V have deteriorated steadily over the last few months,” said Kalyan Basu, an employee of a multinational bank who drives daily to his office near Karunamoyee.

Wipro crossing to College More

What: Rain has eroded the surface layer of a one-and-half km stretch here. Stone chips are scattered all over, making it difficult for motorists to keep control over their vehicles. At many places potholes and craters have developed on the road. A number of important buildings like the Millennium City, IBM and Videocon Park are situated off this stretch.

Motorists’ woes: “In the last few weeks, my motorcycle skidded off the road twice while I was trying to dodge loose stone chips and puddles,” said Paramjeet Sahni, an employee of Desconsoft.

Nicco Park to Wipro

What: The 1.5 km stretch between Nicco Park and Wipro is the worst affected, with nearly two-thirds of the road blocked by the construction of a flyover. The space left — hardly four metres — is unable to handle the 7,500 cars that ply daily. It is also heavily damaged because of the ongoing construction and the rains.

There are deep craters after every few steps. On the rest of the road, the bitumen has come off, making the surface uneven.

Motorists’ woes: “It’s a torment going through the stretch before I turn left from the Wipro crossing to reach my workplace. The roads in and around Sector V have deteriorated steadily over the last few months,” said Kalyan Basu, an employee of a multinational bank who drives daily to his office near Karunamoyee.

Wipro crossing to College More

What: Rain has eroded the surface layer of a one-and-half km stretch here. Stone chips are scattered all over, making it difficult for motorists to keep control over their vehicles. At many places potholes and craters have developed on the road. A number of important buildings like the Millennium City, IBM and Videocon Park are situated off this stretch.

Motorists’ woes: “In the last few weeks, my motorcycle skidded off the road twice while I was trying to dodge loose stone chips and puddles,” said Paramjeet Sahni, an employee of Desconsoft.

"The CMC is always blamed for the poor condition of roads though it does not maintain many of them. We always wanted these roads to be handed over to us. I took up the matter with the state government," said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya.

Out of the 2,705 km of roads in the city, the CMC owns and maintains about 2,100 km. About 275 km of roads in Kidderpore, Garden Reach and along the Hooghly are owned by Calcutta Port Trust. It is supposed to provide conservancy services and arrange for street lights and repairs on the roads.

The PWD owns about 200 km of roads while the CMDA maintains over 130 km of roads that it constructed.

The CMC will take up the responsibility of maintaining 150 km of roads in the first phase. The departments and the CMDA will hand over more roads to the civic body in future.

A committee comprising principal secretary of urban development department, commissioner of police, chief executive officer of KMDA, IG (South Bengal) and additional CP (traffic) has been formed. This committee would look after all developments along the EM Bypass. A master plan would also be prepared under the guidance of the committee.

State urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, said there are plans to expand the EM Bypass. The road between Baruipur and Airport would be developed into an eight-lane stretch.
Huge rush of traffic coupled with irregular parking and erection of unauthorised hoardings are the reasons for accidents on busy roads, the minister said.

A left-turn ramp will be added to the flyover, which was completed at a cost of Rs 15 crore in 2007. It is a unidirectional flyover on which cars move from Hastings towards Karl Marx Sarani. The flyover ends 50 metres before Fancy Market.

"Traffic plies in both directions on the old road on the ground, leading to Kidderpore Bridge, which is narrow. Although most bridges and flyovers have four lanes of seven metres each, the Kidderpore bridge has only three lanes. All cars, moving from Hastings towards Diamond Harbour Road, take the bridge since the newly built flyover accommodates vehicles beyond the Karl Marx Sarani-DH Road crossing," said a senior official of Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC), the agency that built the flyover.

The width of the bridge's carriageway is less than what is needed to accommodate large vehicles. Once the ramp is constructed, "the two-way vehicular movement will be segregated", added the official.

"We have several projects in Bengal and the Expressway is a small part of it. The temporary hold on the Raichowk-Kukrahati project will no way affect our other projects, which are bigger in proportion. I have full confidence on the state government and the chief minister regarding the industrial development in the state," Mukherjee told The Indian Express.

In the telecon, Mukherjee, who is now abroad, said he is yet to get an official order from the state government indicating that the Expressway project is on hold.

"But I have heard of it," he said. "Regarding the Expressway, we are ready to wait. Our initial work and land survey is over. Whenever a consensus for land is achieved, we will go ahead with it."

Regarding the land acquisition problem in Bengal, Mukherjee said: "People's consensus is necessary for land acquisition. The people must be made aware of the positive side of development, before one asks for their land. I trust the government is doing just that."

The plans for the 500-metre bypass have been finalised by Rajarhat-Goplapur municipality and North 24-Parganas police.

“We will overhaul traffic management on this stretch. City-bound buses from north will ply down a dedicated thoroughfare instead of VIP Road,” said Tapas Chatterjee, the chairman of Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality.

“The two pedestrian crossings on VIP Road, which see a footfall of nearly 2,000 per hour, are primarily responsible for the congestion in Baguiati. So, we will construct a four-lane parallel road between Joramandir and Narayantala,” said Monodip Mukherjee, the executive engineer of the municipality.

For example, should the dedicated BRTS tracks be set up next to the median dividers, as in most Indian cities? Or should the bays be right next to the footpaths? Can the speed limit be set at 60 km per hour? Or should it be kept at 40 km per hour, keeping in mind Kolkata's unruly traffic?

"Kolkata, with its idiosyncrasies, has quite a maddening form of traffic and people always flout rules. Therefore, we are still not sure if dedicated bus bays towards the divider would be suitable. People might cross the bays instead of using the overpass or subways," a senior KMDA official said on Monday. Officials also fear that in such a case, people might not board these buses as they are more used to boarding buses from to footpaths.

The dedicated fast track lanes for high-speed buses are proposed to come up on two stretches in the state initially. This will stretch for 62 km in two parts: a 21-km stretch from Ultadanga to Kamalgaji along the EM Bypass and a 41-km stretch between Kalyani and Birati.

A high-level meeting that Tirkey had with Union surface transport secretary Brahma Dutt and other officials in Darjeeling yesterday decided that the state public works department would repair the national highways with Central funds soon.

"The change in alignment of the East-West corridor connecting Assam with Gujarat has led to problems," Tirkey said. "Both the Union ministry and the state were confused over the responsibility of maintaining the roads. However, things have been sorted out in the meeting."

According to Tirkey, his department will start repairing NH31 from Bagdogra to Kalchini, covering Sevoke-Malbazar-Chulsa-Binnaguri-Banarhat-Birpara-Madarihat, after receiving Central funds.

Old Galiff Street
Four craters, each a foot deep and with a diameter of at least 14 ft, line the 1.3-km stretch from BT Road to RG Kar Road. With the entire left side of the road being taken over by encroachers, motorists have no option but to drive through potholes.

Local youths have chipped in to make a fast buck from such mishaps they help drivers pull out their vehicles from the pits against money.

The situation turned worse after residents blocked Ballav Street. "We had to shut the road as trucks and buses used to make a detour through Ballav Street to avoid the cratered thoroughfare," said Ananda Ghosh, a resident. "We hope the authorities will wake up to the problem and take steps to repair the road."

The residents alleged that civic officials often visit the stretch and make notes but there has been no attempt to start repairs. "I cannot recall when Old Galiff was last attended to," said Navin Shaw, who runs a tyre shop on the stretch.

Officialspeak:Talks are on with Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) officials for reconstruction of the stretch. Hopefully, things will be finalised in a month or two," said Pundarikaksha Roy, an executive engineer (canals) of the irrigation department.