12 Kolkata: Commuters faced a harrowing day on the road on Friday, especially in the late morning and early afternoon, as multiple factors — the holiday crowds heading towards Alipore zoo, breakdowns and accidents on AJC Bose Road flyover and multiple political rallies — played spoilsport. While central Kolkata was the worst affected, even south and north Kolkata were not spared.
The problem started with an unexpectedly large number of revellers heading towards the zoo. Police said that with their arrival, both Alipore Road and DL Khan Road saw a slowing down of traffic. The traffic tail on DL Khan Road crossed Uttirno and threatened to reach Bhawani Bhawan. Similarly, the tail on Alipore Road reached close to Lakshmipat Singhania Academy.
Half an hour later, twin incidents — a breakdown and then an accident — led to vehicles slowing down on the twin flyovers — Maa and AJC Bose. By this time, the PTS Crossing came to a standstill, the traffic tail on the Maidan side reaching close to the Kidderpore Road-Casuarina Avenue (Pranabananda Sarani) crossing. The tail on the AJC Bose flyover touched Beckbagan, and those trying to reach Park Street from Howrah got halted on the Vidyasagar Setu ramps. Vehicles, including buses, headed to Behala and Howrah from JL Nehru Road, were diverted via Hastings through Queensway and Kidderpore Road.
With the festival crowd mingling with the office crowd, cops were forced to return to manual traffic monitoring on a large stretch of the AJC Bose Road-Alipore Road area. Such was the condition that sergeants at PTS Crossing were forced to allow vehicles from DL Khan Road up to the Vidyasagar Setu-bound flank of AJC Bose Road before allowing vehicles bound for Esplanade to take a right turn from the AJC Bose Road flyover.
By that time, though, two political demonstrations from Moulali to Esplanade had already started. This clogged both SN Banerjee Road and Lenin Sarani. AJC Bose Road near Sealdah-Moulali was affected, which in turn completely slowed down CIT Road and Beliaghata Main Road. Things turned worse when those protesting for jobs squatted on RR Avenue. This forced cops to divert vehicles through Mayo Road and shut down the Park Street flyover. It took close to five hours to normalise the situation across the city.
The job-seekers continued to protest all through the evening — initially at Dorina Crossing and later on RR Avenue. This led cops to divert bigger vehicles on JL Nehru Road-Chowrangee Road-CR Avenue through Mayo Road-Old Court House Street-KC Das Crossing. With the RR Avenue channel getting reduced to half, movement from SN Banerjee towards Babughat remained slower than usual.
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