Volume jump, traffic block, accident lead to jam on Maa
Times of India | 1 March 2024
Kolkata: Thursday saw traffic moving much slower than usual on Maa flyover, across different time spans, thanks to the failure to divert excessive vehicles on the flyover to alternate routes, a traffic blockade at Chingrighata crossing and the odd vehicular breakdowns. An accident at Mathpukur around 9.50 am that left a bus passenger severely injured added to the problem.
Cops claim, the slowing down was more evident on Science City side rather than Park Circus side.
Commuters claimed the movement was slower between 7.30 am and 9.30 am when the morning school rush merged with the office rush hours. “It was a half a kilometer long traffic chaos around 7.30 am when vehicles barely crawled. It took over 25 minutes to cross the Maa flyover,” recalled Soumyajit Mazumdar, an IT consultant.
In the evening, the huge rush of vehicles towards the city saw movement of vehicles slowing down at Chingrighata. “With unequal outflow towards the Captain Bhery, movement around Science City and Maa flyover were impacted,” said an officer.
“After the recent posts on social media by motorists that they were not allowed to take Maa flyover, we left the decision to motorists to decide if they preferred to ply on the flyover or the Park Circus connector as an alternative,” said an officer at Lalbazar, adding that on Thursday morning two attempts to divert vehicles to Park Circus connector did not find too many takers.
Meanwhile, recurring breakdowns on Maa flyover and AJC Bose Road flyover are causing major traffic jams even though cops have closed the response time to just seven minutes, said cops.
At present, Lalbazar has stationed tow trucks at Pragati Maidan and near Park Circus 7-point besides one more on the flyover for this purpose. “But there are a few challenges which we are facing each day – the tow trucks are often forced to plough through the slow-moving vehicles ahead of it before it can reach the spot. The second problem lies in the size of the tow trucks which takes a lot of space on top of the flyover while pulling the broken-down car. It also requires some extra time to complete the harnessing of the car with the tow truck even as it is ensured that the car is not damaged in the process,” said an officer from one of the two guards that cover the Maa flyover stretch.