Traffic flow on national highways is generally smoother than state highways, except when there are accidents or road blocks by political parties or residents in support of some demand. However, the exception is the rule on Kona Expressway or National Highway 117 and on Mumbai Road or National Highway 6. Two narrow bridges — one on Kona Expressway near Santragachhi and another on NH-6 near Salap — are causing snarls regularly. Long queues of trucks, trailers, buses and cars are seen near the two bridges every day, which are open to both way traffic.
Santragachhi rail overbridge
The narrow Santragachhi rail overbridge on Kona Expressway causes a severe traffic jam almost every day. Kona Expressway is an important link road between NH-6 and the Vidyasagar Setu and hence bears a high volume of traffic. All day long, thousands of trucks, trailers, buses and cars ply along this road to reach their destinations in Calcutta, Kharagpur, Midnapore, Mumbai, Delhi and other faraway places.
The two-way traffic on Kona Expressway suddenly comes to a halt as it climbs the bridge, which is narrow and without a divider to separate the oncoming and outgoing line of vehicles. “Trucks, trailers, buses and cars jostle for space while crossing the bridge. Chaos prevails and we have a trying time controlling traffic. Since there is no divider, vehicles from both sides of the Kona Expressway try to overtake each other creating a snafu,” said a traffic guard.
He said that traffic jams mostly took place at the Santragachhi station end of the bridge because the buses stopped there to allow passengers to disembark. Besides, if any vehicle had a breakdown on the bridge then traffic came to a halt. “Whenever a truck or bus breaks down, we need to take a crane or a breakdown van to tow them off. But even that becomes impossible because of the density of traffic on the bridge,” said a traffic officer. He also warned that once the long-distance bus stand from Babughat shifted to Santragachhi, there would be even more chaos. He recommended that another bridge be built by the side of the old one before the Babughat bus stand is shifted to Santragachhi. Once the new bus stand starts functioning, traffic jam on Kona Expressway will be far worse than what it is today,” said another officer. People living in Bally, Uttarpara or Dankuni have started avoiding Kona Expressway due to the snarls, particularly on the Santragachhi rail overbridge and Pankuria bridge. Instead, they take GT Road. “Earlier, I took Kona Expressway to reach my home in Nischinda. I did not mind travelling a few extra kilometres for a smooth journey. But the traffic jam on Santragachhi rail overbridge and Pankuria bridge force me to take GT Road these days.
The flow of traffic is smoother on GT Road these days than on Kona Expressway,” said Dipankar Chatterjee, an advocate at Howrah Judges Court. He said that sometimes the snarls stretch from Howrah truck terminal on one side to Belepole More on another.
“The Santragachhi rail overbridge is a huge bottle-neck for smooth flow of traffic on Kona Expressway. We have proposed to the state government to build a dedicated flyover from Vidyasagar Setu to Nibra so that long-distance traffic can directly reach the national highway without taking the Kona Expressway,” said Sumit Kumar, deputy commissioner, traffic, Howrah. He said that most of the long-distance traffic did not want to take Kona Expressway mainly because of the regular traffic snarls. “The heavy truck and trailers often break down on the bridge as the angle of the bridge is steep. And once a heavy vehicle breaks down on the bridge, traffic comes to a stop and the jam becomes severe,” said Kumar. He also said that while Kona Expressway is four-lane, the Santragachhi rail overbridge is only two-and-half lane.
Pankuria bridge
Pankuria bridge on NH-6 near Salap is an important link to reach Bally, Bally Bridge, Belghoria Expressway, Rajchandrapur toll plaza and other areas. But a dispute in land acquisition for several years has rendered the bridge almost unnavigable because of severe traffic jams that occur everyday.
Pankuria bridge, like Santragachhi rail overbridge, is too narrow to accommodate the two-way traffic from NH-6.
While the authorities have planned to build a second flank to the bridge to separate the two-way traffic but because of land dispute, the construction, that started many years ago, is yet to finish. As a result, the vehicles have to move slowly to cross the bridge. Sometimes, traffic comes to a halt when there is a vehicle breakdown at the start of the bridge from where the two-way bound traffic is squeezed into a single flank. “In such a situation, traffic movement totally stops until the vehicle is removed with a crane,” said a traffic officer of Domjur police station. He said that accidents often took place at the mouth of the diversion as vehicles jostle to move ahead.
“For the last five years I have been travelling along this road. It takes me at least half-an-hour to cross the bridge due to the traffic jam. This is a daily affair. I do not know why the authorities do not construct the second bridge as early as possible,” said Rajib Chatterjee, a resident of Dankuni.
However, construction of the second bridge for the movement of Delhi Road-bound vehicles is progressing fast. “The problem of traffic jam on Pankuria bridge will soon be over as we are going to open the second flank of the bridge within a month,” said an engineer of the construction agency.
