Crater-free Salt Lake roads; 50% repairs done, issues of damaged stretches remain
Telegraph | 29 April 2025
Salt Lake’s roads remain a shame.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority — both involved in road repair works — say they have repaired half the roads allotted to them.
Township residents, however, complained that there were countless stretches of damaged roads where driving or even walking was a nightmare.
People stumble while walking. Passengers inside cars rattle in their seats.
“The thought of driving through some of the roads in Salt Lake makes me anxious. They are so bad. The road between Tank No. 10 and Calcutta Heart Clinic is in a pathetic condition,” said Kaushik Kundu, a resident of BJ block.
“The stretch of the road between CAP camp and Baishakhi, and one of the flanks between GD Island and Labony, are in terrible condition,” said Kundu, an architect.
A resident of CF Block said that while broken stretches on the main road had been repaired, the roads inside the blocks were yet to be mended.
“Even walking on the road is difficult. I see elderly people stumbling on these roads every day. They have been in this state for several months,” said the woman.
Large craters, uneven road surface and worn-off stone chips are common on many of the roads. Cars or any other vehicle moving on the battered roads leave a trail of dust behind.
Metro has reported several times how the broken and battered roads in Salt Lake made travelling through the township a miserable experience for its residents and visitors.
Once a showpiece township, residents said Salt Lake roads have gone from bad to worse over the past few years.
While announcing the start of the repairs on February 28, Bidhannagar’s MLA Sujit Bose had promised to finish the work “in a month or 10 more days”.
The repairs started on March 3.
Bidhannagar’s mayor Krishna Chakraborty was also present while announcing the launch of the repairs.
On April 19, Bose told this newspaper he has sought a progress report on the repairs.
“The civic body is keeping a tight vigil. I have sought a report from the engineers on the progress of the repairs. Several stretches have been repaired already. The work is going on in full swing,” he said.
“There are so many roads that the work is taking some time, but the quality of the repairs is good. They are scraping off the old layers and freshly laying the roads,” said Bose, also the fire and emergency services minister.
While the BMC has been tasked with repairing the roads inside the blocks and some arterial roads, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is repairing only some arterial roads.
“We are repairing about 10km of roads, and about 50 per cent of the repairs have been completed already. We will be able to finish the remaining repairs within a month,” said a KMDA official.
A BMC official said the civic body would repair 22km of roads, and half of it was already complete. “The entire repair will be complete before monsoon,” said the official.
The repairs are being undertaken in 14 wards of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation — wards 28 to 41 — that cover Salt Lake. The areas fall under Bose’s Assembly constituency.
Repairs in other wards of the civic body will be done later.