Residents of the Nagerbazar area are questioning the need for the Rs 61-crore flyover coming up on Jessore Road over its intersection with Dum Dum Road.

The flyover, to be ready “in a year”, will ease traffic congestion, claimed finance minister Asim Dasgupta while launching the project last week.

Many of the residents, however, feel the flyover, with an arm on Dum Dum Road, will not facilitate smoother traffic flow on the 80-ft-wide, four-lane Jessore Road.

“How will the flyover help? Encroachment on both sides is the reason for vehicles getting stuck,” said local resident K. Ghosh.

There are four autorickshaw stands, four rickshaw stands and nearly 300 hawkers on the pavements and on the carriageway near the intersection.

“Once the flyover is built, there will only be more illegal autorickshaw stands at the ends,” said Ambarish Saha, a resident of Satgachhi.

According to a survey, about 24,000 vehicles ply on the stretch daily. Of them, 16,000 are expected to use the 1.5-km flyover. G. Mitra, a retired senior traffic policeman, said the road is wide enough to take the traffic load and there are few intersections on it to disrupt traffic flow.

The three ministers who attended the launch and North 24-Parganas district magistrate asserted that the flyover is the need of the hour. South Dum Dum Municipality chairman Srihir Bhattacharyya said: “We organise drives to remove encroachments but cannot prevent encroachers from returning.”