Pavements along Jodhpur Park are being reduced to half as the civic body is widening the road.
Immediate impact: series of trees that dot the pavements in one of the leafiest neighbourhoods in Calcutta are on the road.
Several local residents told Metro that they were not only afraid of more accidents, but also apprehended that eventually the axe would fall on the trees.
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the traffic police said there was no other option but to widen the road because the volume of cars in Jodhpur Park had multiplied manifold over the past few years, especially since the South City Mall came up.
But the civic body also said that it had no plans to fell the trees.
Roads in several areas of the city have been widened in the recent past. From Cossipore to Camac Street, the axe has fallen on pavements.
The work that started from the intersection of Jodhpur Park and Gariahat Road opposite the Jodhpur Park post office over a year ago, has now reached the bylanes, a resident said.
A pavement in the same locality after its width was reduced. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta
The pavements are being slashed to almost 6ft from the original width of 12ft or more. The narrowed pavements have got a fresh cover of red and yellow tiles and the new boundaries have been painted in blue and white. There are at least a few hundred trees dotting the pavements on the several bylanes of Jodhpur Park. On the stretches where the pavements have been narrowed, the trees now stand on the road.
Calcutta has too many fast growing trees whose roots do not strike deep and are prone to getting uprooted during a squall. Too much of use of concrete around trees has further worsened the situation.
At some places, the soil base of tress are fenced off. With the pavement gone, the fencing has also disappeared and made the trees more vulnerable.
“The authorities did not bother even once to consult the local residents before shortening the pavements. No one knows what are they are going to do to the trees,” said Uttam Bose, a resident.
The pavement right in front of Bose’s house is being narrowed. A pile of red and yellow tiles was stacked outside his house.
The children in the neighbourhood used to play on the wide pavement outside his house. “Who will take the blame if one of them is hit by a car now,” he said.
Southern Avenue, Alipore and Jodhpur Park are perhaps the only remaining leafy neighbourhoods in south Calcutta. “But over the past few years, the increase in the number of cars in Jodhpur Park has changed the character of the neighbourhood. On weekend evenings, it sometimes becomes tough to cross the road to reach the neighbourhood shop because of the number of cars,” said a local resident.
A traffic police officer said since the South City Mall had come up, the volume of cars in Jodhpur Park had gone up manifold.
“The increase in the volume of cars has slowed down the traffic substantially. On a Saturday evening, it takes more than 30 minutes to reach Lake Gardens from Dhakuria (a distance of 2km),” said a traffic sergeant.
Ratan Dey, the mayoral council (roads) of the CMC and also the local councillor (ward 93), said widening the roads was a necessity.
“The traffic pressure in Jodhpur Park has gone up big time. Calcutta has only six per cent road space, much lower than that in other metros. We have to widen the roads to create space for parking cars. Otherwise, the parked cars make the roads narrower and the traffic becomes slow,” he said.
But Dey assured that the civic body had no plans to fell the trees that now stand on the roads.
“There is no plan to fell a single tree. Once the roads are widened, cars will be parked between the trees that now stand on the roads,” he said.
A stretch near the Jodhpur Park market where the road has already been widened. A part of the fruit stall used to be on the pavement, said the old lady who runs it Picture by Bishwarup Dutta
The move has annoyed local residents, who have formed WhatsApp groups to share their concerns about the loss of pavements.
“There is a lot of anxiety and we plan to make a deputation to the councillor listing our concerns,” said Alok Kumar, who lives in an apartment near the Jodhpur Park lake. The pavement in front of his house has not been touched yet.
Some residents said they had learnt that Gariahat Road would be closed during the construction of a proposed flyover. The buses and other vehicles will be diverted through these lanes.
“That will lead to a manifold rise in pollution, apart from destroying the area’s peace,” said another resident who did not wish to be named.
The state government had initially proposed a four-lane flyover in Jadavpur between Dhakuria and KPC Medical College.
“But we are now mulling a flyover from Prince Anwar Shah Road Connector to South City Mall,” said an official of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority.
“In either case, sections of Gariahat Road are likely to be closed for construction. The buses and other vehicles have to be diverted through another route,” he said.
The sleepy bylanes of new Alipore had witnessed a similar chaos after the Majerhat bridge collapsed last September and hundreds of cars that headed to the city centre plied through New Alipore.