Kolkata: Rain-battered Salt Lake roads cry for repairs ahead of festivities

KOLKATA: Several roads in Salt Lake have disintegrated following continuous rain over the last few weeks. The festive season is just round the corner but the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is yet to start patchwork.
Potholes and large craters have developed along several stretches - be it the main thoroughfares or the alleys inside blocks. At many places, traffic crawls as motorists are forced to negotiate craters all along.The potholes are so huge at the entrance points of Salt Lake from EM Bypass that the traffic cops have put up fences to ensure that vehicles could move on through the less damaged spots.
Bidhannagar Police has also been sending letters to the civic authorities, urging them to repair the roads. "At least three to four letters have been sent to the civic authorities in the last six months with requests to repair the most damaged stretches," said a traffic police officer.
Salt Lake residents TOI spoke to were frustrated over the repeated promises of the civic authorities on road repairs. "Every time the issue is raised, civic authorities say that it will soon be done but nothing happens. We have become accustomed to live with such pathetic roads," said Sankhadeep Roy Chowdhury, a resident of AE Block.
"Whenever we complain, the civic authority cites shortage of funds. It appears that until a major accident takes place, nothing will be done. Patchwork is expected before pujas, but that will be at a very few places, specially near the well-known puja pandals but the condition inside the blocks may remain unchanged," said Dipannita Bakshy, a resident of Salt Lake BL Block.
Civic officials said that funds from the truncated road repair proposals were getting sanctioned in batches and the authorities will do a patchwork of most damaged roads before pujas. We plan to float tenders to take up overall repairs after the puja. "The funds are getting sanctioned in small allocations. All wards are being allocated Rs 10 lakh each for patch work. Major road repairs will be done after the puja," said a civic official.
(Inputs from Mayukh Sengupta)