Police are conducting a survey of some busy crossings where simultaneous movement of vehicles in multiple directions can result in collisions.

The hazardous crossings, according to the police, include the ones at Gariahat and Hazra, and the EM Bypass intersections with Beleghata Main Road and Narkeldanga Main Road.

“We have started a survey in some crossings, such as the one at Gariahat, to count the number of vehicles travelling in all four directions,” said Dilip Bandopadhyay, the deputy commissioner of police in charge of the traffic department.

“We want to have an idea of the vehicular load in each direction at different times of the day and make arrangements accordingly,” Bandopadhyay added.

The arrangements, police sources said, will include stopping north-south movement of vehicles while the east-west channel remains open and vice-versa.

The second step is to decide which direction will remain open for how long at various times of the day. The survey data on the variation in vehicular load throughout the day will help decide that.

At the Gariahat crossing, for instance, vehicles from the east (Ruby) take a right turn to hit the north-bound road (towards Ballygunge Phari) while those from the west (Rashbehari crossing) turn right to hit the south-bound road towards Dhakuria.

Simultaneously, vehicles keep moving from west to east (Rashbehari to Ruby) and east to west (Ruby to Rashbehari).

The situation is similar at the Bypass-Beleghata Main Road crossing.

Vehicles coming from Beleghata Main Road (west) are allowed to go towards Ultadanga (north), Ruby (south) and Salt Lake (east). Simultaneously, vehicles from Salt Lake Sector III (east) are allowed to proceed towards Beleghata Main Road (west), Ultadanga (north) and Ruby (south).

Vehicles from the east taking a right turn often come face-to-face with those coming from west and entering Salt Lake. Likewise, vehicles from the west proceeding south often stand the risk of crashing into those travelling from east to west.

Citing the Gariahat instance, an officer said: “If Ballygunge Phari-bound vehicles from Ruby are made to wait, the movement of vehicles towards Rashbehari will be affected. That will result in long snarls on the stretch. So the duration of the green signal for each direction will have to be planned carefully,” explained an officer.

At present, traffic cops manually guide vehicles turning right at these crossings.

“Now, we use a mix of manual and automatic systems. Once the study is over, we want to abolish the manual system and guide traffic entirely with signals,” said deputy commissioner Bandopadhyay.