Traffic flow increases on Bailey bridges as all schools reopen

KOLKATA: With all schools and educational institutions reopening after the Puja break on Monday, vehicular movement on the twin Bailey bridges, connecting Alipore to New Alipore, showed why the cops are a worried lot a day before introducing tidal traffic flow on them.


In the peak morning hours, vehicular pressure was the most — right from N R Avenue in New Alipore to the

Bailey bridge

, about 400 metres ahead. Also, there were long queues of vehicles from Alipore Park Road to N R Avenue towards Alipore Mint.

The journey from NR Avenue to Burdwan Road-Alipore Road crossing (State Bank crossing at Alipore) took no less than 25 minutes. The return journey was no less time consuming — the journey from the State Bank crossing through Alipore Road and

Durgapur

Bridge to

Taratala

took between 30 minutes and 35 minutes.

Traffic snarls were reported from Alipore Road between 6.30pm and 7pm after commuters thought that the tidal traffic flow was brought into effect from Monday.

Independent surveys by both the

Kolkata traffic police

and railways have found that on certain occasions in peak morning hours, per minute flow of vehicles at the level crossing was about 35. Per-hour vehicular flow ranged between 1700 and 2000 cars. Police said the railways have informed them that the flow at the level crossing was several times higher than some “of the busiest level crossings in the country”.

Bonani Sen Sharma, who travels in her office car to Sector V everyday, said that her cab driver abandoned the idea of using the Bailey bridge soon after they were caught in a jam on NR Avenue close to the Bidya Bharati School. “We took Durgapur Bridge and I later realized talking to other colleagues travelling from

Behala

that this took me a shorter time. Several other motorists used the same route,” said Sharma.

“There are two reasons for introducing tidal traffic on Bailey bridges — to provide relief to students returning from schools to their Behala and New Alipore homes after 1 pm and take pressure off Durgapur Bridge in the evening,” claimed a cop, adding there were instructions that Durgapur Bridge is used only for non-peak hour movement.

Sergeants and other policemen on duty, however, felt even the tidal flow cannot bring down travel time. “The traffic on Bailey bridges is now getting discharged at Burdwan Road through Alipore Park Road that is narrow. Even residents’ vehicles parked on the road are holding up traffic. Add to it other vehicles that are taking a left turn to Raja Santosh Road after availing Durgapur Bridge (from New Alipore) before finally discharging at the same point. Traffic movement is remaining slow all through the day,” said an officer.

Police said that the biggest challenge for police on Tuesday will be to handle the traffic at Burdwan Road-Alipore Road crossing. “The crossing has a roundabout. But vehicles headed to Behala will have to enter straight to Alipore Park Road after coming from Lalbatti using Alipore Road. The entire flow of vehicles getting out of Behala will also converge here from Alipore Road to eventually use Burdwan Road. We have to ensure there are no snarls at this roundabout,” explained a police source.

Sources said unless other alternative roads are ready, pile-ups near Bailey bridges can’t be avoided.