The CA island rotary in Salt Lake that causes traffic congestion during peak hours. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

The rotaries in Salt Lake are causing congestion in the township rather than easing traffic flow, engineers of the state transport department have concluded.

Transport department engineers feel rotaries in Salt Lake should be transformed given the increase in traffic load. There are 33 rotaries across the township. To begin with, two rotaries — at CA island and PNB crossing — should be dismantled and the areas converted into a four-road intersections, they said.

“Considering the nature of vehicles and their number, the rotaries don’t help in handling traffic in Salt Lake anymore. The space where two streams of vehicles meet before diverging has reduced. It is around 10-12 metres now, while it should be at least 30-40 metres,” said A. K. Das, a senior engineer of the transport department.

“At CA island, vehicles from either the EM Bypass or Labony come to a halt during office hours. All the flanks remain full. The gridlock is an indication of the mess that is in store,” a transport department official said.

Another factor adding to the mess is the location of bus stops close to the rotaries. They should ideally be situated at least 25 to 30 metres away. “When buses stop to pick up and drop passengers, they hold up other vehicles, adding to the chaos. Worse still, there are traffic signals around the circles, defeating the very purpose of having a rotary,” another official said.

Bidhannagar municipality authorities, however, are not keen on trimming or dismantling rotaries as they are revenue spinners. “We have leased out seven rotaries to advertising agencies for beautification and this will earn us Rs 27 lakh annually. If it works, Salt Lake would look good,” said Biswajiban Majumdar, the chairman of the municipality.