The city needs more pedestrian refuge islands to reduce accidents, according to findings of a recent study of road traffic accidents around busy intersections and crossover points on accident-prone thoroughfares conducted by police.

A refuge island is an elevated area in the middle of the road where pedestrians can stop before resuming their walk across an intersection. The concept is recognised globally in urban traffic management.

Senior Kolkata Police officers said they would invite engineers from different agencies who maintain the city’s roads to propose spots where pedestrian refuge islands can be built.

Till now, the officers in charge of traffic guards — 26 of them within Kolkata Police’s jurisdiction — would decide the location of the islands.

“We would like engineers, who are part of the district roads safety committee, to propose spots where pedestrian refuge islands can be built. The district roads safety committee meeting is scheduled within a few weeks. We will propose this idea for better coordination among different agencies,” said Y.S. Jagannathrao, deputy commissioner of police in charge of the city’s traffic movement.

Each district in Bengal, including Calcutta, has a road safety committee, set up under specific provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, to reduce accidents by taking necessary corrective steps.

In Calcutta, the committee comprises the commissioner and other senior officers of Kolkata Police, representatives from departments like health, education and information and cultural affairs; the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the PWD and the National Highways Authority of India.

The committee for Calcutta also has representatives from the transport department, IIT Kharagpur, HRBC, which maintains the second Hooghly bridge, and the RVNL, which is implementing the ongoing Metro projects.

The KMC maintains most of the city’s roads. The PWD is responsible for some, mostly in the Maidan area, while the KMDA is more into the maintenance of bridges and flyovers.

“When engineers are invited to propose a location for constructing a pedestrian refuge island, they will consider several things that the police do not, like the layout of the underground utilities, the type of bitumen coating on the particular site and the nearest location of the pier of a bridge or flyover,” said a senior police officer.

“The police officers merely propose constructing a pedestrian refuge island at a particular location based on traffic inputs. But the challenges of building one at that spot is usually not considered,” the officer added.

Since 2022, several pedestrian refuge islands have been built at key intersections like the Dorina crossing at Esplanade, Exide, Minto Park and Hastings.

Senior officers said new islands have been proposed on stretches of EM Bypass and in parts of the city’s central business district.

“Utilities like sewer, drainage, water, gas, electricity and broadband lines often travel beneath Calcutta’s bigger roads. Sometimes trial trenches need to be dug to locate the different utilities,” said a senior engineer of the KMC’s roads department.

“The layout for Bidhan Sarani in the north differs from, say, Biren Roy Road in Behala or EM Bypass in the east.”

A section of engineers said while the KMC maintains the AJC Road, the details of the location of the piers of the AJC Bose flyover and their coordinates are with the KMDA.

“If engineers are asked to consider the challenges of constructing a pedestrian
refuge island, they will come up with proposals that will be easier and faster to implement,” said a senior KMDA engineer.