A road in Tangra, bustling every evening with people heading to popular restaurants and bars, has been in a terrible state for months, a resident of the area complained to mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday.

Hakim, responding to the complaint during the weekly Talk to Mayor phone-in, promised to restore it within “20 to 25 days”.

South Tangra Road, a stretch of which runs through the area known as Chinatown, was dug up to lay underground sewer lines. The caller said the road had remained in poor condition for three months.

“Please do something,” the caller urged the mayor on Friday.

Hakim asked engineers for a repair timeline. “Give us 20-25 days,” a senior engineer said. The mayor relayed the promise to the caller.

“Earlier, the area faced waterlogging. That won’t happen anymore. We will restore the road,” Hakim added.

Turning to civic engineers after the call, he said: “You have to understand people get frustrated when a project drags on. They walk through muck to reach office.”

Residents of the area and visitors told The Telegraph that the road resembled the moon’s surface, filled with muck where cars, two-wheelers and bicycles frequently get stuck. Pedestrians dread walking through the stretch, especially at night, unsure if their feet will sink into the slush.

A resident said he has stopped taking his car through the road and now uses his two-wheeler. “The road has been in poor condition for far too long. It should have been repaired before the monsoon,” he said.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sources said the road had an inadequate sewer network and frequently overflowing open drains. These open drains also posed hygiene risks, said a KMC official.

Sandipan Saha, councillor of Ward 58, said replacing the crumbling, silted drainage lines was essential to end waterlogging. “KMC had laid underground lines on part of the road earlier. This time we replaced the old lines on a 1km stretch,” he said.

A visit to the road on Saturday showed crushed bricks dumped on dug-up sections. Engineers said restoring the road will require multiple layers, finishing with a bituminous top coat.

However, one engineer warned that laying bitumen during the monsoon could result in it wearing out quickly.