Policemen direct visitors to Milon Mela to park their cars elsewhere on Wednesday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

The EM Bypass has been rid of the road hogs — at least those ones being allowed to park opposite Science City for a week and slow down traffic.

The day Metro highlighted the menace posed by the parking of cars on the Bypass approach adjoining Milon Mela, the state machinery swung into action and restored it to a no-parking zone. The state government is one of the organisers of the Industrial India Trade Fair being held from January 17 to 27.

By Wednesday afternoon — the fair is open to visitors from 1.30pm — a no-parking board stood tall where cars were being parked in double and triple lines till Tuesday evening. A team of traffic cops was on the spot, first to request visitors to park elsewhere and then to punish those who persisted. As a result, there was a free flow of traffic at the Bypass end of the Park Circus connector.

What prompted the sudden no-parking move on the seventh day of the fair?

“Following the Metro story, senior traffic officers met on Wednesday morning and decided no parking would be allowed on the Park Circus connector,” said a top cop.

“There is parking space for no more than 500 cars at the site, whereas we need space for at least 1,500 vehicles. With the police stopping parking on the Bypass, visitors are bound to face problems,” said K.K. Newada, the president of Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, organisers of the trader fair.

“But this is a minor hiccup, considering that this is the first time we are having the fair at this venue. Hopefully, this problem will be sorted out by next year,” he added.

Senior officers from the East Traffic Guard of Calcutta Traffic Police and officers from Tiljala police station monitored parking at the Mela site from 1pm and regulated traffic flow.

“The entire black top of the road is our jurisdiction, but the kuchcha stretch bordering it is under Tiljala thana. So, we allowed parking along the main road, but not on it,” said a senior officer of the East Traffic Guard.

From January 17, when the 21st Industrial India Trade Fair got underway at Milon Mela — billed as a permanent fair site — traffic on the Bypass connector has been reduced to a crawl, with one flank of the Bypass used for parking.

On Tuesday, industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen had admitted that Milon Mela was “incomplete” and holding the trade fair was “part of the learning process”.