All block markets in Salt Lake are likely to have only two gates open for the coming few weeks.

A joint civic and police team is expected to visit the markets and implement a rule where only one gate for entry and one for exit will be kept open.

Krishna Chakraborty, the mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said that they were planning to ask all market committees to install hand wash facilities at the gates or to keep sanitisers. “We will also help them. We will hold a meeting on this soon,” she said.

Chakraborty said the civic body wants to ensure that everyone who enters a market sanitises or washes their hands, thereby reducing the risk of the community transmission of the coronavirus.

Many residents, however, said that this might result in overcrowding near the gates.

Soham Chakraborty, an ED Block resident, felt that since most markets in Salt Lake have a number of gates, entry and exit of shoppers take places in a way that the gates do not get crowded. “If they implement a single entry gate rule it might lead to crowding, which was not happening till now,” said Chakraborty.

Duttabad cases

Meanwhile, the lockdown measures have been strengthened in Duttabad as at least two residents have tested positive for Covid-19 there.

A 15-year-old boy is one of the two. Both are admitted to government hospitals. Their family members have been taken to an institutional quarantine centre.

A portion of AC Block has also been sealed off after a resident was taken to a hospital with Covid-19 symptoms, a corporation official said.