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A biker tries to negotiate SN Ganguly Road, where sewer construction is in progress, on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh
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Rajesh Sharma and his pregnant wife, who was in labour, had a close shave on their way to a nursing home on Sunday morning.
There was a gaping opening at the point where Lalji Hirji Road — the short cut they had taken to reach the nursing home — met JJ Road as cement slabs on the connecting drain were missing, thanks to ongoing sewerage work.
The slabs were removed on Saturday.
But Rajesh’s driver had no way of knowing it, as there was no warning sign or placard at the entry point on Main Road. Luckily, he applied brakes at the nick of time.
Minoti Banerjee, a resident of Lalji Hirji Road, who witnessed the chaos, said, “Such incidents have become the norm of the day on almost all streets, starting from Lalji Hirji Road to Bangla School Lane, around Old Commissioner’s Compound (OCC). The civic body ought to have been a little responsible and put up warning signboards.”
Finance consultant Om Prakash Sarawgi, who runs his office on JJ Road, was also annoyed. “Several of my clients returned yesterday as the bylanes they took were also clogged,” he rued.
There are five lanes in and around OCC — Lalji Hirji Road, SN Ganguly Road, Vishnu Talkies Lane, Radhey Shyam Lane and Bangla School Lane. Dotted with hardware shops on both sides, the stretches lead from Main Road to JJ Road. Sewerage work is going on at some point or the other on all the roads.
It took three children, who was moved by the plight of commuters, to put the civic authorities to shame. Playing the role of Good Samaritans, Ujjwal, Adi and Shloka used a white drawing sheet to scribble the words “Road under construction” and mounted it like a placard near a point on Lalji Hirji Road from where people could have easily turned their vehicles. “What the children did was actually the responsibility of the contractor,” admitted an RMC official.
Deputy mayor Ajay Nath Shahdeo said he was aware of the trouble as he received similar complaints from other parts of the city too. Promising to instruct officials to put up signboards, he said, “We are thankful that the people pointed this gaffe out to us. This will help us take corrective measures.”
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