Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has accepted a proposal from police to build pedestrian refuge islands at over 25 large intersections, which are difficult to walk across within one traffic signal cycle.
A refuge island is a small section of pavement where pedestrians can stop before resuming the walk across an intersection and is a globally recognised concept in urban traffic management.
Earlier this month, Kolkata police had sent a proposal to the civic body to build refuge islands for pedestrians at some of the major intersections.
On Thursday, senior KMC officials said the proposal for refuge islands had been taken up and a blueprint prepared.
“An engineer in each of the 16 boroughs will be responsible for scanning the proposed places of construction in consultation with the police,” said an official in the civic body’s civil construction wing.
“Representatives of the KMC and the police will jointly inspect the proposed sites and the report on each location will be taken up for threadbare discussions.”
Officials said a roster had been drawn up with the names of the engineers concerned from each borough and the areas they would be visiting on specified dates with officers from the traffic police department.
A copy of the roster has been sent to Arijit Sinha, deputy commissioner of police, traffic. The inspection will be completed by April 6.
“Since most of the roads where pedestrian refuge islands have been proposed are maintained by the KMC, the civic body will have to take a call on the construction,” Sinha said.
“We have received an intimation about the spots where the civic body wants to conduct a joint survey.”
The first such inspection was held on Thursday near Currency Building, at the intersection of Hemanta Basu Sarani and RN Mukherjee Road, off BBD Bag.
A team of civic engineers from Borough V measured the length and breadth of the intersection, which attracts a footfall of over thousands, and discussed with officers from the Headquarter Traffic Guard about where the island would be set up.
The police have proposed 30 locations for the construction of refuge islands. Three of them are on the Bypass — the intersections at Patuli, Ruby and Tagore Park.
“Since the urban development department maintains EM Bypass, these three points will be surveyed by engineers from the KMDA and our officers,” said a police officer.
Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) functions under the urban development department.
Some of the other proposed locations are the Exide, Dorina, Minto Park, Chittaranjan Avenue-MG Road, Shyambazar Street-JM Avenue, Rajabazar Science College, Phoolbagan and James Long Sarani-SN Roy Road intersections.
Officers managing rush-hour traffic at these intersections have observed that haphazard pedestrian movements — with some trying to run across after the signal for vehicles turns green — were impeding flow of vehicles.
