A giant crater welcomes visitors to Sector V. This is just one of the potholes that scar the showpiece tech township dogged by infrastructure trouble. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

A recent survey by the Indian Chamber of Commerce highlighted how the bandh is the biggest bane of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s blue-eyed sector. But there are many other problems that are slowing down Sector V, the state’s showpiece tech town, 24x7.

“None of the companies in Sector V conduct their client meetings here. Not only is the traffic a mess, the place is not well maintained. It is not what you would like your clients to see,” says an official of Cognizant Technology Solutions.

Metro tours tech town to see what ails it...

Traffic trouble

Cars travel at the average speed of 20 km per hour here, thanks to poor traffic management. The Chingrihata crossing, the entry and exit points from Sector V, as well as the Wipro crossing, are the worst.

At other crossings inside tech town, the traffic mess is aggravated by lack of signals. No designated bus stops, taxis scouting passengers and autos add to the chaos. Crossings like the busy College More are unmanned. The traffic kiosks are empty, the automatic signals are not functioning yet.

Planning potholes

Case in point: A divider in front of SDF building blocks the crossing, making it difficult for cars to manoeuvre; traffic merges at one point while changing lanes, making it accident-prone. Lack of designated parking lots inside Sector V has led to unauthorised and haphazard parking — and taxi stands — here, there, everywhere.

“No by-laws were followed and as a result, the buildings have come up right on the roads with no pavements. Sector V was not conceived for industrial purposes and so it does not have the infrastructure to handle the exponential growth,” says Partha Ranjan Das, city-based architect and urban designer.

That is evident from the potholes on the thoroughfares and bylanes blocked with building materials.

Promises:

“Road repairs on certain stretches will be completed before monsoon. To ease pressure at the Wipro crossing, traffic will be diverted through the service roads along the canal. The divider in front of SDF building will be removed.

“Construction of six parking lots at various points in Sector V has been sanctioned. One, in a field near Wipro, is already functional. Taxis will be given an authorised parking strip at the parking lots.”

— S.A. Ahmed, chairman of Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority.

Peril:

“The road and traffic situation will get worse once Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company Limited (Jusco) takes up sewerage work in the area.”

— a senior official of CMDA