Get set, brake

The Parama-Park Circus flyover was thrown open to traffic around noon on Friday. For the next three hours, Metro sailed and stuttered between the Park Circus seven-point crossing and Silver Spring on the EM Bypass, to find out how long it takes to travel both on the flyover and the road below

A ride to Park Circus from the Bypass through Calcutta's longest flyover took 45-50 minutes on Friday, while it took 15 minutes by the road below.

Metro drove down the Parama flyover on Friday after it was inaugurated by the chief minister and also travelled by the road below to take stock of the ground reality.

So, why did it take such a long time on the flyover, which is supposed to cut down travel time? The seven-point crossing where the flyover lands was unable to cope with the surge in the number of vehicles, Metro found out.

At one point, police had to stop vehicles from taking the flyover at the Bypass, 4.3km away. The tail of the snarl that began at the seven-point crossing had reached Silver Spring by then. Any effort by the cops to ease that east-west rush meant the south-north snarl stretching up to Gariahat, about 3.7km from Park Circus.

"We were not prepared for this," a Calcutta traffic police officer said. "It will take us a few more days to handle such a huge volume of traffic converging at the seven-point crossing in Park Circus."

Around 3pm - more than two hours after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated the Parama flyover - two assistant police commissioners, an officer-in-charge and six traffic sergeants tried to work out a "circulation plan" at the seven-point crossing. As the cops tried hard to find a way out, vehicles kept piling on the Parama and the AJC Bose Road flyovers while traffic on CIT Road came to a standstill.

"I wanted to take a ride on the flyover to be part of history," Rajiv Agarwal, a businessman dealing in pharmaceuticals, said. "I hope this snarl would be resolved soon... the city looks so different from the top."

Vehicles headed for Park Circus from Silver Spring or PC Chandra Garden took 45-50 minutes on an average, triple the time it took Metro to cover the stretch by the road below. The ride was, however, smooth for vehicles headed for the Bypass. "It took me only five minutes to cover the stretch from Park Circus to PC Chandra Garden," said a banker headed to Ruby from central Calcutta.

At the seven-point crossing, traffic bosses faced a double challenge. First, to ensure north-south movement of vehicles from multiple sides - the ones from Syed Amir Ali Avenue headed for CIT Road, vehicles coming down the AJC Bose Road Flyover and from Park Street towards Gariahat and those travelling down CIT Road towards Gol Park.

The other challenge was to ensure vehicles from the AJC Bose Road flyover took the Parama flyover while diverting heavy vehicles towards Darga Road.

"The bigger challenge would be next week," a traffic cop said. "In the afternoon, when La Matiniere, Don Bosco and Modern High School get over, it will be even more difficult to handle the situation."

Veterans in traffic management said the problem would be resolved only if the two remaining flanks were built - one connecting the AJC Bose Road flyover to the new one and the other draining out vehicles from the Parama flyover down Congress Exhibition Road and linking them to the AJC Bose Road flyover.

"We want the first flank to be built by March," said urban development minister Firhad Hakim. "The other one will have to be completed by the next Pujas."

"We will work out a way soon," said V. Solomon Nesakumar, DC, traffic.

Reporting by Subhajoy Roy; pictures by Bishwarup Dutta  
 

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