Cars line up on the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector. Pictures by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

It was touted as the solution to the car crawl in an increasingly congested pocket of south Calcutta. Now, 18 months old, it is a problem child. Find anyone who takes the Anwar Shah Road connector from the EM Bypass to Jadavpur police station and you will find a victim of slow flow and car clot. “It can take anything between 10 to 30 minutes to negotiate the Jadavpur crossing. It’s symbolic of what ails many parts of Calcutta — myopic planning and autorickshaw anarchy,” rues D. Dasgupta, a resident of the area.

Purpose

The 3.5 km stretch from Jadavpur PS to EM Bypass was officially inaugurated on March 1, 2007. “The aim was to speed up the movement of vehicles coming from EM Bypass and heading towards areas like Tollygunge and Behala and vice versa. It should take 10 minutes to cross the 3.5 km connector,” says Debdas Bhattacharyya, the director general (operations) of the CMDA.

Earlier, the way into this part of town for those on the Bypass was either through Gariahat or through a circuitous Santoshpur route. “That usually took close to an hour,” points out Bhattacharyya.

The 47B terminus

Problems

Commuters have a different story to tell. The 10 minutes that the CMDA official earmarks for crossing the connector is invariably spent at its Jadavpur end, waiting for the lights to turn green. “The car queue often reaches Shahidnagar bus stand, which is almost 175 metres from the Jadavpur police station crossing. During peak hours, we are caught in jams that last forever,” says Sanjoy Sengupta, a resident of Shahidnagar.

With the car count on Prince Anwar Shah Road — and at the Jadavpur police station crossing — rising alarmingly post-South City Mall, it’s getting worse by the week.

The narrow serpentine lane of the flyover is also a safety hazard, given the menace of autos and overtaking.

One solution

To ease the traffic flow, the CMDA authorities have decided to construct another flyover parallel to the existing one from Jadavpur PS crossing to Selimpore Naskarpara. The new flyover will be 700m long and 11.5m wide. “Work will start in December and will be completed in two years,” says Bhattacharyya.

The new flyover will be used by vehicles heading towards the Bypass while the present one will be used for down traffic. What about roadblocks for land acquisition? “The land required for building the flyover belongs to us, so there is no problem,” says Bhattacharyya.

The Trinamul office on the connector

Road hogs

While the CMDA is trying to widen the road, auto stands and bus terminuses have decided to eat up a lot of the existing space. If the auto stand at the Jadavpur mouth of the connector is a pain, buses on the Dhakuria-BBD Bag and 47B routes have grown terminus roots on the connector. A permanent structure has already been constructed for the 47B terminus. “We are widening the road to ease the flow of traffic. But the terminus and stands are going to defeat the entire purpose,” rues a senior official of CMDA involved with work on the Anwar Shah Road connector.

“It’s really tough to say whether the auto and taxi stands are temporary or permanent. At the moment, the terminuses are on the connector but if they cause traffic congestion, we will have to shift them a few metres away,” says Kumaresh Banerjee, a local Citu leader.

“The 47B bus used to have its terminus near the South City Mall and we were asked by the police to shift out. The permit of the route is till EM Bypass where the connector ends, but if the buses terminate there it will again create traffic snarls,” he adds.

Adding a shade of orange to the road-hog debate is a Trinamul Congress party office between KP Roy Road and Garfa Main Road. The CMDA alleges that the local Trinamul leadership is not willing to shift the party office from there.

“They are not allowing us to demolish the office. It occupies almost 4m of the road,” points out Bhattacharyya.

The local Trinamul leadership dismisses the CMDA allegation. “The authorities have never spoken to us directly. They approached us through a contractor. We told him that we are ready to move but they should compensate us so that we can build a party office elsewhere,” says Hirendranath Aich, the president of ward committee 105.

Compensation for vacating CMDA land? “Well, we are ready to move without any compensation. But at least the CMDA authorities must write to us,” Aich relents.