The city-bound flank of Vivekananda Setu - Bally bridge in popular parlance - is closed to traffic to facilitate repairs. The closure came into effect on July 1 and will remain in force till September 30.
Residents of Bally, Liluah, Uttarpara, Dankuni and neighbouring areas take the bridge on their way to the airport, Rajarhat, New Town and Sector V. Since the closure, vehicles bound for Calcutta are being diverted to Nivedita Setu, the new bridge beside Vivekananda Setu.
Chaos prevails in the area where the vehicles are diverted. "We are experiencing a 40 per cent rise in private vehicles ever since Bally bridge was closed to traffic. That is causing snarls," said an official at the Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Company Pvt Ltd, that runs the toll plaza of Nivedita Setu.
Extra distance
Public buses, school buses, pool cars and ambulances are exempt from taking the stretch leading to Nivedita Setu on which the toll plaza is located. These vehicles take the service road, from where they hit the road leading to the bridge through an opening in the guardrail half a kilometre after the toll plaza.
Private cars, however, have to pass through the toll plaza. Visitors from Belur Math going to Dakshineswar, students of Bally and Liluah schools who used to travel through Bally bridge and people from north Howrah, Uttarpara and Dankuni on their way to the airport, Rajarhat or Salt Lake have to make a detour.
After crossing the one-and-a-half km toll-free road, they can take a 100m short-cut, flouting one-way rule, to reach the toll road and make a U-turn towards the Nivedita Setu toll plaza.
The other option is a 7km drive along National Highway 2 towards Dankuni and then taking a U-turn from a cut in the divider.
Dum Dum resident Sunny Mondal, a student of Class IX at Don Bosco Liluah, has a hard time getting back home. "If I take Nivedita Setu, I reach home late because I have to travel that extra distance. I have exams coming up and I cannot afford to spend so much time on travelling," he said.
No signage
Although there are enough signs to tell people that they have to take Nivedita Setu because Bally bridge is closed, there is not a single arrow anywhere on the road showing them how to get there.
"I took my family to Belur Math on a Sunday afternoon. From there we planned to go to Dakshineswar temple. I had to travel an extra 7-8 km towards Dankuni to find the road to the bridge. All along there was no signage. I had almost lost my way," said Ashish Sen, a resident of Baranagar.
"We have traffic cops posted at various points on the road to guide people if they want to reach the toll road," said an officer of Nischinda police station, right across the road.
Snarl at toll plaza
The queue at the toll plaza stretches for more than a kilometre in the morning and evening. The average waiting time is 30 minutes or more.
"Earlier, it took me only 20 minutes to reach the airport from Bally. Now it takes almost an hour because of the detour and traffic jam at toll plaza," said Sumit Mukherjee, a resident of Bally.
Those who take a shuttle to Sector V from Bally Ghat station in the morning have to leave at least half an hour earlier. Aakansha Kumar, a third-year student in the Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM) in Sector V, said: "I have to leave at least two hours before my class starts. It usually takes just 50 minutes to reach my college but because of the jam and detour, it takes a good one-and-a-half hours or more. The shuttle that I take to Sector V takes a lot of time to fill up because people now prefer to go by bus because it takes less time," she said.
