Craters like this one on the Bypass-bound flank of the road in front of Nicco Park line almost the entire stretch of the city’s speed corridor to the airport. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

Calcutta’s speed corridor to the airport has sprung potholes over six feet wide and as many inches deep, prompting many to go back to snarl-ridden VIP Road rather than end up with a damaged car and a dodgy back.

The gaping craters and slush pools on the 4km stretch between Chingrihata and Technopolis have appeared after just a few days of heavy rain since last Thursday. Sunil Rai, a businessman from Phoolbagan, realised the pitfalls of travelling to the airport through the pothole-ridden road that touches tech hub Sector V last Saturday.

“A couple of hundred metres after Chingrihata, the nightmare began,” Rai told Metro from Mumbai. “From 60kmph my car had to suddenly slow down to 20 and we moved at that speed for several kilometres as we approached Nicco Park and then the Wipro campus. We stuck to a lane covered in ankle-deep water as the other one looked more perilous. Suddenly, the car started jerking. I thought it had hit a speed-breaker. The rattle continued for some 40 to 50 metres as the undercarriage of the car almost scraped the road surface,” he said.

Worse awaited the 42-year-old a few hundred metres down the road, just across the flyover in front of Wipro. “After slowly negotiating the crater-ridden approach to the flyover, my car picked up speed and I thought things would be better on the other side. As soon as we came down the flyover, there was a loud thud with something hitting the bottom of the car badly. As a result of the impact, the car went up a few inches in the air and landed with a thud, only to hit something again. These were potholes,” said Rai whose car went straight to the service station after it dropped him at the airport.

Rai immediately decided to take a left turn and head for the airport via Salt Lake, Ultadanga and VIP Road. Had he taken a right turn and continued towards Rajarhat, he would have had to spend more time travelling and endure another series of bone-jarring jerks on the stretch between the BSF housing complex and Technopolis.

The Bypass-Salt Lake-New Town route to the airport was opened in 2004-05 with the promise to relieve airport-bound passengers of the hassle of negotiating snaking snarls in Ultadanga and along VIP Road. Today, it is the route of choice for most people headed from south Calcutta to the airport or back.

Sneha Pal, a homemaker from Ballygunge who visits her banker daughter in Bangalore every six months, is one of those used to the fast, smooth commute that has been spoiled by the season’s first burst of rain.

“Five years ago, we had no choice but to bear the snarls at Ultadanga and VIP Road because that was the only route. The New Town link then came like a blessing. It’s a shame that this showpiece road has turned into a potholed horror,” Sneha said.

The stretch between Wipro and Technopolis looks the worst with craters every few metres, stone chips strewn all over and stagnant water on either side of the road.

Vehicles swerve left and right to avoid landing on the potholes, which is a bit like playing Russian roulette.

Cars can’t travel faster than 10kmph without breaking something.

“When you are driving down this road now, it’s hard to tell if this is a village or a metro township. Try as you might, there is no avoiding the potholes because there is one every few metres,” said Payal Ghosh, a customer care executive at a BPO in Technopolis.

Payal can’t stay away from office because of a bad road, but she has stopped riding her scooter to work.

Several IT companies operating out of Sector V have written to the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority to repair the damaged stretches. “We took pictures of the stretch in front of Technopolis and sent those to the chairman. But repairs haven’t been initiated so far,” a representative of Technopolis said.

The government had announced last month that the township’s civic body would be merged with the Calcutta Municipal Corporation to provide better services to the IT hub.