Better late than never: Salt Lake residents’ verdict a month after BMC starts road repairs
Times of India | 3 April 2025
12 Kolkata: A month since it started, Salt Lake residents say they welcome the road repair drive undertaken by Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), even though the initiative started late and residents had to suffer bad street stretches for long. The BMC is repairing roads across the township's 14 wards, covering Salt Lake and adjoining areas. Starting from Nayapatti on March 3, in presence of minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose and BMC mayor Krishna Chakraborty, civic officials said work has been done on 8 km-9 km of road out of 30 km identified for repairs.
Sankhadeep Roy Chowdhury, a senior employee with a private firm and resident of Salt Lake AE Block, said driving from his house to First Avenue through the connecting road between Tank No. 4 island to Canal Side Road was a headache as the stretch had been in a severely battered condition for years. There is finally respite since it has been thoroughly repaired with bituminous mastic asphalt.
Civic officials said about 40% of repairs in each of the 14 wards has been completed. "There were some holidays in the last few days, as well as Holi. Work is set to resume. The target is to complete repairing all the identified road stretches before monsoon," said a BMC official.
Some of the important road stretches which have been repaired include the connecting roads from First Avenue to Canal Side Road, like the stretches connecting PNB island to Kestopur canal between AA and AB blocks, and from Tank No. 4 island to Canal Side Road between AE and AD blocks, as well as stretches inside AL, BE, CE, BG blocks and other places.
However, there is still a large number of important stretches which are yet to be repaired. "The road near eastern drainage channel is damaged in several places and has potholes, especially in front of Sector V metro station and towards CK-CL blocks. The stretch in front of Tank No. 10 is yet to be repaired as well," said a CK Block resident. Some roads connecting with eastern drainage channel road in Sector III are also in poor condition, another resident said.