A paralysing traffic jam seized Salt Lake on Tuesday (July 29), turning the city’s primary tech corridor into a commuter’s nightmare. The stretch from Karunamoyee to Wipro More and Sector V was virtually immobile through much of the day, trapping vehicles and forcing thousands to endure long delays. With roads packed from early morning and no relief in sight, frustrated commuters flooded social media with images and accounts of the ordeal.
The gridlock began intensifying around 9am, as vehicles started moving at a crawl. What is typically a 10-minute ride turned into a journey of over an hour for many. As tempers flared and cab meters ticked on, several commuters, including office-goers and students, abandoned vehicles to walk the last mile on foot. App-based delivery riders and bikers, too, struggled to navigate through the traffic.
Wipro More, an infamous choke point in Salt Lake’s traffic flow, bore the brunt of the pressure. The junction, where multiple arterial roads merge, lacked adequate traffic control, worsening the already fragile situation. Sector V — Kolkata’s core IT district — was almost unreachable by late morning, as the absence of working signals and proper traffic redirection compounded the chaos.
According to traffic officials, the congestion was triggered by a combination of ongoing metro construction, faulty signals, and overwhelming vehicle volume. However, local residents and daily commuters blamed poor planning and inactive traffic management. With no proper diversion strategies and insufficient on-ground coordination, even smaller lanes became bottlenecks by midday, pushing the traffic load into residential areas.
By evening, the chaos didn’t just persist — it grew. As office-goers poured out of buildings to head home, they were greeted by a fresh crisis: too few buses serving city-bound routes. Long queues formed at key stops, and a missed bus meant waiting 30-40 minutes for the next one. Techno India More, and Wipro more are worst-hit junctions during rush hour, the situation was dire — overloaded buses, gridlocked lanes, and weary commuters struggling to board any available transport.
With no immediate fixes announced, residents have little hope for swift relief. Until authorities respond with real-time traffic management and better public transport coordination, Salt Lake’s roads — especially between Wipro More and Sector V — will remain a zone of frustration, delays, and daily disruption.
