Residents of housing complexes in a pocket of Rajarhat where apartments sell for Rs 45-70 lakh but the link road is a dirt track marched till the township’s Biswa Bangla Convention Centre on Thursday to protest the lack of initiative to ease their daily commuting distress.
Around 200 members of gated communities like PS Ixora, Sunrise Greens and Clubtown Courtyard were in the crowd that converged on the airport-bound flank of the main arterial road cutting through New Town. They stalled traffic for close to 40 minutes from 9.30am.
The protesters said a ride through Adarshapally Road was not only bumpy but also a danger to life and limb. “A school bus almost fell into the roadside canal the other day when the driver tried to avoid a gigantic crater. Some passers-by helped our scared children off the bus after it came to a halt. A terrible accident is waiting to happen,” Mohua Sarkar, who lives in Sunrise Greens, said.
Adarshapally Road may be part of the sprawling Rajarhat realty landscape but is not the New Town Kolkata Development Authority’s responsibility, Hidco boss Debashis Sen said.
“This road is under the jurisdiction of the Jyangra-Hatiara gram panchayat. We have spoken to the authorities concerned about the problem and requested them to repair the road at the earliest,” another official said.
The 2km ride from the base of the flyover near the convention centre till the affected complexes takes a bone-jarring 20 minutes on an average. Cars and motorbikes wobble and sway dangerously from side to side in trying to avoid the craters that seem to grow larger every day.
Parimal Ghosh, a software engineer who stays at PS Ixora, said the link road hadn’t seen even patchwork for a few years. “Driving through this road means being in constant fear of toppling over and falling into the canal. There is no alternative route, so you have to endure the torture every day,” Ghosh, who is the secretary of the residents’ association of the complex, said.
According to him, dusk brings with it more danger because the stretch of road does not have any street lamps. “We live so close to New Town proper, yet this area is caught in a time warp. A woman wouldn’t dare walk back home alone from the main road after sundown.”
Neelanjana Chatterjee, who writes code for a software company in New Town and stays at Clubtown Courtyard, said the protest that disrupted traffic was possibly the only way to be heard. “We have sent countless petitions to the panchayat and nothing has happened. The police know the state of this road because they patrol the area. Hidco is aware as well but has done nothing,” she said.
Police and Hidco officials, led by joint managing director Gopal Chandra Ghose, spoke to the protesters and got them to lift the blockade in return for the promise that Adarshapally Road would be repaired. “Patchwork will start soon and the road will hopefully be repaired completely by January,” Ghose said.
Shibu Gayen, who heads the Jyangra-Hatiara gram panchayat, claimed that the irrigation department was responsible for road maintenance in that area. “I will install some street lamps despite budgetary constraints,” he said.
Irrigation and waterways minister Soumen Mahapatra said only the roadside canal was his department’s responsibility.
