20,000-strong force hits streets after parking-traffic mayhem
Times of India | 8 October 2024
Kolkata: The evening traffic on Monday was smoother than Sunday with nearly 20,000 personnel comprising policemen, civic volunteers and NCC cadets deployed across the city to keep traffic flowing. Following a directive by Kolkata Police commissioner, Manoj Kumar Verma, to increase vigil and stop illegal parking, the force decided not to allow vehicles or bikes to be parked within 100m of a pandal or on the main thoroughfares with no-parking boards.
However, before the force hit the street in the afternoon, there were traffic snarls in parts of the city, particularly during office rush hours in the morning. The traffic cop count on the streets was around 8,500. Monday was the first day of full deployment by KP.
On Sunday evening, indiscriminate parking on even main thoroughfares like Harish Mukherjee Road, Chetla Road and Indra Biswas Road had led to traffic mess. Though traffic movement on Chetla Road was slow as was at Vivekananda Road in north Kolkata, at no point did movement stop altogether. Traffic was also slow on Maniktala Main Road and Ultadanga Main Road. Police had faced several complaints on Sunday from locals across the city after a section of pandal hoppers – taking advantage of the absence of cops in the wee hours of Monday morning – parked the vehicles in no-parking zones, closer to the pandals. The worst sufferers were those residing near Lebutala-Amherst Street in central Kolkata and Chetla Road in the south. A section of office-goers also complained of issues returning back to their residences from offices in the evening after police asked autos to go off roads from Monday evening and several buses trying to run on shorter truncated routes. “It was around 4 am on Monday when crowds of people were seen heading towards the Santosh Mitra Square pandal. Meanwhile, at the Bank of India corner in Bowbazar, two police sergeants were sweating profusely. Their voices were hoarse from shouting. Amherst Street and BB Ganguly Street had practically turned into parking lots. This led to severe congestion in College Street, MG Road, and Bowbazar,” recalled an ACP.
“ From Indra Biswas Road to Northern Avenue and Paikpara, bikes and cars were parked haphazardly . By midnight, the road in front of Tala Pratyay Club became practically immobile,” claimed Indrasish Roy, an IT executive residing on the Indra Biswas Road.
A similar scene was seen at Chorbagan Sarbojanin near the Girish Park crossing. As the night grew, people were using Central Avenue and Vivekananda Road for parking, avoiding police attention.
At New Alipore, close to Suruchi Sangha, Satyajit Mita said it took close to an hour to cross Durgapur Bridge after 10 pm.