KMC repairs 131 of 261 bad roads in pre-puja drive
Times of India | 7 September 2024
Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) roads department has taken up a special road repair drive ahead of Durga Puja. The repairs are being conducted on stretches that have been identified by the traffic wing of Kolkata Police. According to a KMC roads department official, the cops have provided a list of 261 damaged roads that need repair before the pujas.
A civic official on Friday claimed that out of these 261 stretches, KMC has attended to 131 and the rest were being repaired on a war-footing. The department is expected to wrap up the repair process by another 10 days. Some stretches of major thoroughfares that have been already repaired include Vivekananda Road, Strand Road, MG Road, Bhupen Bose Avenue and AJC Bose Road (from Exide more to Beckbagan), among others.
However, the KMC road repairs gang will need to conduct a drive on stretches of Chittaranjan Avenue, Chitpore Road, APC Roy Road, BB Ganguly Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Alipore Road, SP Mukherjee Road, DH Road and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road (Tollygunge), among others.
The fate of many roads that need immediate repairs in the port region is yet to be decided as the civic brass wants the Kolkata Port authorities to either take up the repair or release funds for the job. “We know that the condition of Coal Berth Road, Circular Garden Reach Road and Paharpur Road that fall under the jurisdiction of KoPT is deplorable. But we can’t take up the repair of these roads till the matter is sorted out between KoPT and the KMC authorities,” said a civic official.
Moreover, residents of large parts of Behala have been complaining against inaction in repairing stretches that have been lying dug-up for long. According to Sourav Mitra, a resident of Motilal Gupta Road, all requests for an immediate repair of some of the worst stretches have so far fallen on deaf ears.
“We have been suffering from the wretched condition of Motilal Gupta Road for the past few years due to an ongoing sewerage upgrade project. Long stretches are lying dug-up. These are leading to frequent road accidents,” complained Mitra. Likewise, the condition of MG Road (near Thakurpukur cancer hospital) and Biren Roy Road (West) is also deplorable and needs to be repaired immediately.