Repair of roads around big-ticket pujas that draw huge crowds needs to be prioritised, police have told some of the agencies involved in maintaining roads in Kolkata.
Once the repairs are over, police officers will get down to finalising the blueprint of crowd circulation around the big pujas, start setting up barricades and make a traffic assessment of the areas.
The responsibility of maintaining Kolkata’s major thoroughfares rests with three agencies — the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), public works department (PWD) and the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
The KMC is responsible for maintaining the majority of the roads.
Senior officers at Lalbazar have asked engineers of the three agencies to prioritise stretches that are traditionally big draws during Puja.
The move comes within days of the police handing over a list of roads in need of repairs to the agencies.
“There are over 3,000 pujas in the city and its adjoining areas and this time we expect a bigger turnout of pandal-hoppers compared with the last two years. The idea is to start early with the big pujas. We will gradually move to the medium and smaller ones,” said a senior police officer.
“Unless the repairs are over, we can’t start work on preparing blueprints for puja crowd management.”
Officers said once the repairs are over, they will start setting up channels for crowd circulation following discussions with the organisers of big pujas.
Sites for setting up gates will then be earmarked, which will be followed by putting up of signage.
With a little over a month left before the celebrations begin, officers have pressed the button for early completion of road repairs.
