Waterlogged streets, bad roads, maze of overhead cables and filtered water supply are the issues Salt Lake civic chief Krishna Chakraborty promised to look into “urgently” after she was sworn in as the mayor on Friday.
All 41 councillors of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation took oath during the day in the presence of Firhad Hakim, mayor of Kolkata, and fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose, among others.
Anita Mondal was sworn in as deputy mayor and Sabyasachi Dutta as chairperson.
Chakraborty, who spoke to The Telegraph on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony, said she wanted to start road repairs “as soon as possible”.
A large number of roads in Salt Lake and its adjoining areas, including Baguiati, Teghoria and Rajarhat, are in a poor state.
This newspaper has reported that traffic cops had to place guardrails to prevent motorists from driving into the potholes that dot main roads as well as lanes.
“We are aware that the roads are in a very bad state. We had tried patchwork repairs but those did not work. This time we intend to relay the entire surface using the latest techniques,” Chakraborty said.
The mayor said she wanted to meet multi-system operators and others to draw a roadmap to clear the overhead cable mess.
Dutta said he had requested Hakim to provide “technical expertise” on the matter.
“It requires technical knowhow and we have asked Firhad Hakim to help us provide guidance on how to construct underground conduit channels for the cables,” Dutta said.
Chakraborty spoke of the need to provide filtered water to all 41 wards of the civic body.
At the swearing-in, the mayor promised to work together with all her colleagues and said residents in all 41 wards would get proper civic services.
She also warned against in-fighting and tried to portray a united front as she posed for photographs with Dutta, a former mayor of the civic body.
