Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has got from police a list of 120 roads that have potholes and must be repaired before Durga Puja, said a senior official of the civic body.
The KMC’s engineers are inspecting the roads and drawing up a roadmap for the repairs, the official said.
The civic authorities said they had targeted to complete the repairs by September 20,10 days before Sashthi (October 1).
“We have set September 20 as the deadline because if some of the roads cannot be repaired by then, we will still have time to finish work before the festivities start,” the official said.
“We have received a list of 120 roads from the police where there are potholes. The list came about five days ago. It includes Rashbehari Avenue, Darga Road, Raja Subodh Chandra Mullick Road, Chittaranjan Avenue and Mahatma Gandhi Road.”
The official said the KMC would not fill the potholes by simply pouring bituminous hot mix into them. Instead, the KMC will dig the affected parts of the roads a few inches and lay a bituminous layer.
“We will try to ensure that post-repair, the affected parts align with the rest of the road and there is no undulation,” the official said.
The Telegraph has been reporting for a few weeks about the poor state of Kolkata’s roads.
Across the city, commuters are confronted with broken and battered stretches. Among the thoroughfares in poor state is EM Bypass, which is maintained by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.
Officials in the agency said they were undertaking repairs.
Roads and lanes in Salt Lake and adjoining areas such as Kestopur, Baguiati and Rajarhat are dotted with potholes.
“We will undertake repairs before Durga Puja,” said an official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Deputy mayor Anita Mondal, who is also the mayoral council member in charge of roads, said: “We don’t have the funds right now to carry out extensive repairs, so we are having to rely on patchwork repairs. We are trying to get funds for thorough repairs after the Puja,” she said.
