Kolkata: The KMC on Saturday launched a night drive to repair roads left battered by the incessant rain over the past couple of days due to Cyclone Dana. The KMC roads department has formed road repair gangs that aims to fix the worst stretches by Wednesday.
Conceding the recent rain damaged several roads, mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday said, “Our roads department has identified 43 stretches that will be repaired.” A civic official said the work would begin with C R Avenue and APC Roy Road.
A TOI survey on Saturday found several stretches of CR Avenue, MG Road, APC Roy Road and the approach road to Howrah bridge battered and cratered. Similar was the condition of some portions of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road, SP Mukherjee Road, Diamond Harbour Road, Circular Garden Reach Road, Paharpur Road and Taratala Road. Several stretches of EM Bypass, like places near Chingrighata, Science City, Hiland Park and Avisikta, have also sprung potholes. The KMC will also take up the repairs of some service roads, including those near two private hospitals—one near the Ruby crossing and the other close to SRFTI.
In the BMC area of Salt Lake and Rajarhat-Gopalpur, several stretches that were taken up for patch-up before Durga Puja have again developed craters, with loose stone chips lining the roads, posing a hazard for bikers. The bituminous layers of patched-up stretches in front of CGO Complex, Bidhannagar North police station and at Karunamoyee have started eroding. The Bidhannagar Traffic Police plans to write to the civic authorities again, urging them to conduct a thorough repair. “The civic authorities will be urged to conduct proper repairs with quality materials so that the road surface lasts longer. Stretches that were repaired only about a month ago are showing signs of wear and tear,” said a Bidhannagar Police commissionerate officer.
BMC officials said full-fledged repairs would be taken up in phases, subject to the availability of funds approved by the govt. “Patch-work was disrupted on repeated occasions due to rain,” said an official.