Mayor Firhad Hakim faced numerous complaints about poor roads and waterlogging during the weekly phone-in programme, Talk to Mayor, on Friday.
Hakim said the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will need four to five days without rain to fix the pothole-ridden roads of the city. “It is now raining almost every day, making it difficult to repair roads, he said.
According to engineers, the bituminous mix used to cover potholes fails to achieve the required binding if the road is wet.
Hakim also advised engineers to use paver blocks to repair stretches of roads that were breaking repeatedly.
A caller from Ward 111 in Garia said a stretch of Rishi Raj Narayan Road near his home was in a poor state. Hakim asked an engineer of KMC to inspect the road on Saturday and see what can be done.
Two callers from Ward 122, which covers parts of Behala and Haridevpur, also complained about the poor state of roads and waterlogging.
A man told Hakim that the edges of the road at Shakuntala Park remain waterlogged for two or three days following showers, which, he said, was a recent phenomenon.
Waterlogging along the sides of the roads had never happened before, the man told the mayor.
Hakim asked the engineers about the reason. Shakuntala Park lacked an underground drainage network and movable pumps were being used to drain out the water, engineers said.
A woman from the same area complained about knee-deep water and pothole-ridden roads. “Please do something. Even ambulances cannot get inside,” the woman pleaded with Hakim.
The KMC has undertaken a project to lay new underground drainage lines in the area, Hakim said.
Civic services were rudimentary in parts of Behala and Joka that used to have large tracts of farmland, even a few years ago. The drainage and other facilities have not matched the pace of upcoming housing projects in the area, sources said.
The Telegraph has reported how Calcutta’s roads, including stretches of multiple arterial roads, are pockmarked with potholes following rains over the last week. The surface has also worn off in long stretches of roads. The repairs, hindered by continuing rain, have been inadequate so far.
A division bench of the high court on Thursday expressed concern over the sorry state of roads in the state.
The government has to repair two busy roads in Calcutta and one in Howrah within two weeks, failing which, the court will initiate a suo motu case, said the bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das De.
“We do not need two weeks. We need four or five rainless days to fix the roads,” Hakim said.