12 Kolkata: Heavy rain has battered several road stretches across Salt Lake. The Bidhannagar traffic police have been repeatedly urging the civic authorities to take up road repair work in the last six months but to no avail.
With no major repair work done for years, stretches which are already in damaged state and crying for repairs are crumbling even further due to the regular rain as the civic body could neither take up full fledged road repair nor conduct patch work.
With the roads at the entry point of Salt Lake from EM Bypass developing craters and potholes along with stretches on the cross roads and avenue roads, the traffic police is having a tough time managing traffic as vehicles are slowing down while moving on the battered stretches.
“The civic authorities have been appraised about the poor condition of the roads multiple times in the past few months. In some places, the road level has become uneven. Vehicles are slowing down due to the cratered stretches as traffic pressure increases, specially during office hours,” cops said.
There are a number of stretches towards the eastern drainage channel side and its adjacent spots in Sector III where large craters are developing. In some places, there is road subsidence, specially at places where patch work was done earlier.
BMC officials said that tenders will be floated and repair work will be taken up as per availability of funds which is to be approved by the state govt. “All the 41 wards of BMC spread over Salt Lake and Rajarhat Gopalpur are being covered. However, we need at least a week’s dry spell for conducting patch work at places where the earlier patch work has worn away,” said a BMC roads department official.
Residents are disappointed over the repeated wear and tear of roads in the township. “The condition in many stretches has turned worse with no repairs. It is extremely risky for motorists, specially bikers who can lose control if not driving very carefully,” said Kawshik Dutta, a resident of Salt Lake BD block who rides a two-wheeler.