Near the proposed Baranagar metro station

Durga Nagar

Prafulla Nagar

Belghoria Expressway: An 8km stretch of Belghoria Expressway between Dakshineswar and the Jessore Road crossing is riddled with craters and has turned into a commuter's nightmare.

In some sections the craters are so deep that vehicles have to stop before negotiating them.

The stretch turns even riskier after a spell of showers as the craters get covered with water. Motorists fail to tell the craters because of the water and drive straight into them.

"The lights do not work on several stretches. At night, vehicles have only their headlights to fall back on," said Shanti Chakrabarty, a guard hired by a contractor working on the Dakshineswar Metro project at Prafulla Nagar. "The potholes have been growing in size by the day. The rain makes it worse."

The stretch where Chakrabarty works is close to Baranagar Road railway station and the spot where the Baranagar Metro station is coming up. Thousands of office-goers converge at the Prafulla Nagar bus stop every morning to catch a bus bound for Salt Lake or Sector V.

Most potholes there are almost as wide as the road. Similar is the situation in parts of Purba Talbagan, Vidyasagar Pally and near Sreenagar.

At Khalashitolla, the potholes on the airport-bound flank are so wide that motorists cannot skirt them and have to drive through the craters.

"The expressway provides the shortest route for us to reach Sector V," said Apurba Manna, a software developer from Belghoria. "I seldom drive down the road because of the giant potholes."

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which maintains the road, admitted that the condition was bad on certain stretches, especially on the flank leading to the airport. They blamed overloaded trucks for the poor shape of the artery.

"The surface needs to be overlaid but that cannot be done now because of the intermittent rain. A repair blueprint has already been drawn up. We had repaired the expressway twice before," said Subrata Nag, project director, NHAI, east.

"We have written to RVNL (Rail Vikash Nigam Limited) for repairing the part of the road in the Baranagar Metro station area. They have assured us that they will."

The street lights, NHAI officials said, are maintained by the respective civic bodies. The road passes through the areas looked after by South Dum Dum, North Dum Dum and Kamarhati municipalities.

Kamarhati Municipality chairman Gopal Das said the civic body had spent several lakhs of rupees on repairing the street lights. The heads of the other two municipalities could not be contacted.