A kutcha road in Garia. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has taken up on election-eve a two-year scheme to metal the 300km of kutcha roads on the city fringes.

The civic authorities have also offered to take over the kutcha private roads in new urban settlements. This was decided at a recent mayoral council meeting.

A kutcha road is an unpaved road without a proper bed to bear vehicular load. These roads turn muddy and slippery during the monsoon and are often unfit for vehicular movement.

Most of the kutcha roads are in Behala, Garden Reach and Jadavpur and on the eastern fringes. The areas came under the Calcutta Municipal Corporation in 1984.

Kutcha roads are a problem in urban settlements at Brahmapur, Kamgachhi, Madurdaha and Mukundapur on the eastern side of the EM Bypass, Kalagachhia, Shibtala, Rabindranagar and Silpara in Behala and Baishnabghata and Patuli in Jadavpur. The width of the roads varies from 8ft to 15ft.

“The Trinamul Congress board that preceded us had announced a programme to metal all the kutcha roads in Behala but did nothing. We have now taken up a project to metal all kutcha roads in the city. We will start work immediately so that all roads are metalled by 2012,” said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya.

The municipal election is likely on the first half of next year.

Initially, Rs 20 crore has been allotted for the project. The total cost of laying a bitumen topcoat on all the kutcha roads will be over Rs 100 crore, said a civic engineer.

“All the kutcha roads cannot be metalled overnight because several steps are involved in between, such as dressing, soling, paving and covering with topcoat. Right now we have decided to do the basic work on the existing kutcha roads. The expenses will be met from the civic body’s coffers,” said mayoral council member (roads) Tuhin Bera.

According to engineers in the civic roads department, the 1,500km road network in the city proper does not include a kutcha road.

After the addition of 87sq km of Behala, Garden Reach and Jadavpur to the CMC area, the total road length rose to nearly 2,000km.