Vehicles parked on the diversion adjacent to the flyover linking VIP Road with New Town make a mockery of the traffic police plan to use the lane as a bus bay. Picture by Amit Datta

Traffic police knew two years ago exactly what to do to prevent fatalities on Calcutta’s killer stretch, VIP Road, but never got around to doing it.

A senior official of North 24-Parganas police admitted on Monday that the airport link would not have witnessed so many accidents if the department had the means to implement the decisions that were taken to turn the high-speed corridor into a safer transit zone.

One of the decisions was to ensure that buses headed towards Ultadanga did not miss the diversion adjacent to the flyover linking VIP Road with New Town. A man was run over by a bus racing another on Sunday, taking the number of road casualties on the Teghoria-Kaikhali stretch to four in six months. The number of accidents recorded in the same period is 12.

“It had been decided at a meeting in 2006 that the 400-metre diversion would be a bus bay to prevent clogging on VIP Road. But we do not have enough personnel to enforce the rule,” the traffic official said.

The same is true of the bus bay at Lake Town, another accident-prone zone that is even busier than Teghoria and Kaikhali. Buses rarely ply through the diversion; if and when a vehicle uses the bay, it is to overtake another.

“The bus bay was meant to keep vehicles from trying to overtake one another at the risk of mowing down people waiting for transport. Ironically, it is used by most vehicles only to dodge traffic on the main road,” said Anup Ghosh, a resident of the area.

A police post is just yards away, but rogue drivers don’t give a damn. “We have to stand on the divider while waiting to board a bus or an autorickshaw. It is always a risk to life and limb when a vehicle is racing another and we are caught in between,” Ghosh said.

Personnel at the Baguiati and Lake Town traffic posts gave the same excuse for lax enforcement: inadequate manpower. “It is known that we have very poor infrastructure and less than the required manpower. It is difficult to force buses to use the bay,” a sub-inspector said.

Deputy superintendent of police (traffic) S. Ghosh said manpower was being “strengthened” for better vigilance. “As for buses not using the Lake Town diversion, I have to check why it is so despite our having a post there,” he said.