The Parama flyover will remain intermittently closed at night for the next five days to facilitate installation of lights bright enough to help drivers see through fog.

The flyover will remain closed on and off between 11pm and 5am till December 6 to enable engineers from the CMDA's traffic transportation and electrical wing to carry out repairs in two phases.

In the first phase the road surface will be overlaid with mastic asphalt, and in the second, sodium vapour lights will be installed all along the entire carriageway of the city's longest flyover.

"We have been concerned about low illumination of the flyover for some time now following complaints from motorists. The visibility falls drastically at night during winter because of fog. A tendency to speed in such a situation often leads to accidents," a senior officer of Calcutta traffic police said.

CMDA insiders said a part of the exercise would involve setting up lights on the railway overbridge in Park Circus.

"The railway has given its initial permission to install lights on the steel structure over the tracks. Engineers are now trying to find a way to install lights on both sides," a CMDA official said.

Transportation experts and a section of engineers said there were two bends on the flyover - one around the middle of the structure and the other towards ITC Sonar. Both points are dangerous to negotiate, especially when visibility is low.

On January 3, a 30-year-old man from Ekbalpore had died when the i10 he was driving at a high speed rammed into the divider on the flyover near the turn towards ITC Sonar.

Officers of the city traffic police said the youth, Amir Khan, might have failed to see the divider because of fog.

The CMDA, the custodian of the flyover, will also relay a major part of the road surface - between pillars 35 and 87 - with mastic asphalt. "This particular stretch has started eroding. It needs urgent repairs," an official said.

In August, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed anguish after spotting craters on the flyover on her way to Sonarpur.

She was accompanied by urban development minister Firhad Hakim.

Since then the authorities have conducted patch repairs.

"Ahead of the Bengal Global Business Summit on January 20 and 21, efforts are on to ensure that road infrastructure around Milan Mela, including the flyover, is spruced up," a CMDA engineer said.

Calcutta police have insisted that while the repairs are on, the CMDA install some CCTV cameras so cops could monitor speeding vehicles.

There are six CCTV cameras on the flyover but Lalbazar wants the CMDA to install 11 more.