Several thoroughfares in Calcutta that were disturbed to lay underground utility lines, some of which are being laid for the first time, are now either filled with the soil that was removed or with crushed bricks.

The roads continue to be impassable due to a reduction in width by one-third or almost fifty per cent in particular areas.

Areas of the Rashbehari Connector, particularly between Siemens and GST Bhavan, are in this state. A long section of BB Chatterjee Road is also in a similarly unfortunate condition.

“About one-third of BB Chatterjee Road is unusable,” a resident said.

Engineers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the stretches cannot be paved immediately.

The bituminous top layer can be laid only when the dug-up stretches, which are now covered with soil and crushed bricks, get adequate time to settle.

In large swathes of Kasba, Garia and Jadavpur, the roads have been dug open to lay new water lines that will carry potable water from Dhapa and Briji water treatment
plants to new booster pumping stations in these neighbourhoods.

“We will lay nearly 144km of fresh water lines. The roads have been dug open for the new underground lines. We are creating a network that will bring water from the two treatment plants to places that were so far mostly dependent on underground water or where the supply of potable water was inadequate,” said a KMC engineer.

These are places where the KMC has long promised to supply potable water.

The civic body is setting up a 10 million-gallon-a-day (MGD) water treatment plant in New Garia’s Briji. The plant is coming on a plot along the southern EM Bypass, which connects Briji and Kamalgazi. The KMC is also augmenting the capacity of the treatment plant at Dhapa by 20 MGD.

The additional water will be supplied to the water-deficient zones.

“We took up the work during winter because there was an embargo on digging roads during the monsoon and then during Durga Puja and Diwali. There are huge crowds on the roads to do any work then. We will get time to work until the board exams begin in February,” said the official.

He clarified that laying the underground lines would not be over by February. “We will have to take up the remaining work after the board exams,” the engineer said.

Mayor Firhad Hakim had promised to commission the plant at Briji by the summer of 2026.

Baiswanar Chatterjee, the councillor of Ward 91, which covers stretches of BB Chatterjee Road, said the road restoration work will be done in phases and not wait for the entire project to end.

“We have already levelled some of the stretches where work was done earlier and placed crushed bricks over levelled soil. Once this settles down, the road will be paved,” he said.

Chatterjee, also a mayoral council member, said the KMC was sprinkling water on the road to ensure that dust from the dug-up stretches did not pollute the area.

Stretches of roads have also been dug up in north Calcutta’s Hari Ghosh Street.

Mohan Kumar Gupta, the councillor of Ward 17, said that the water supply line, which had dislocated and developed leaks, is being replaced.

“This is an old line that supplies water to Hari Ghosh Street, Masjidbari Street and neighbouring places,” he said.