A stretch of Jessore Road that was dotted with potholes and craters is being repaired. And instead of the age-old technique of workers laying the road, a sensor-based road paving machine was at the job.
Metro had reported on multiple occasions how the dilapidated road that connects the airport from the Belgharia Expressway, Madhyamgram and Barasat had turned into a motorists’ nightmare.
The pathetic condition of the road had even prompted the airport authorities to request the police and the public works department undertake repair work. An official of the PWD that maintains the road said they had decided to completely relay the entire stretch from Madhygram till the airport bus-stand intersection.
Both the city-bound as well as the airport-bound flanks of the artery will be relaid using mastic asphalt, the PWD official said.
On Monday, one lane of the airport-bound flank of the Jessore Road was cordoned off to traffic. The top layer of the road had already been scraped off starting from near the Sher-E-Punjab hotel till the Birati intersection.
“We had completely peeled off the top surface. We are now replacing it using a sensor based road paving machine that is non-polluting,” an official said.
According to the official, the machine is fed ready mixed asphalt from a truck and it lays the road automatically while paving it. “It saves a lot of time. The team was able to complete relaying the 2-km stretch by the end of the day,” the official added.
Traffic headed to the Ultadanga crossing, however, has slowed down considerably because of the cordoned-off stretch. The drive to the airport as well as back to Ultadanga is bumpy as both craters and uneven stretches of patchwork dot both the flanks of the VIP Road.
The places where the patchworks have peeled off are dusty and pockmarked with stone chips and made things risky for both two-wheelers and cars.
Many bikers have skidded on these patches and many have got injured after the chips kicked up by the wheels of passing vehicles hit them at a very high speed.
Kamalika Bhattacharya, a resident of Birati, was happy that “the next set of elections are near”.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation elections are scheduled on January 22 along with civic polls in Asansol, Howrah and Siliguri.
Bhattacharya said accidents were taking place frequently. “At night, motorists and two-wheeler riders misjudge the depth and width of the craters. Accidents also take place because of the loose stone ships lying around. They have just started repairing.
Hopefully, this time the road will last.”
