Slush from canals piled up by the side of VIP Road near Lake Town. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Slush dredged from the Bagjola and Kestopur canals a couple of months ago and dumped on parts of VIP Road remain where they were as the authorities play pass-the-buck.

“People do not understand when we try to explain to them that it is the responsibility of the irrigation department to remove the slush,” Anup Mitra, the chairman-in-council for water and electricity in South Dum Dum Municipality, told Metro.

What isn’t difficult to understand is how hazardous the slush can be after a spell of rain. On April 4, a speeding bus that was trying to overtake an autorickshaw slipped on wet mud and plunged into the Lower Bagjola canal near Kestopur, killing 21 people.

South Dum Dum Municipality began clearing slush from VIP Road after the accident but left the job half done. “We will resume work after Puja. The municipality will be spending more than Rs 30 lakh on the cleaning operation,” said Mitra.

One of the mud dumps on VIP Road is just across the spot from where the bus on route number 217B plunged into the canal. “It’s been there for the past three months. The authorities are fencing off the canals but don’t they realise what will happen if a vehicle travelling at 50 kmph or more slips on that slush?” asked Debanjan Adak, a resident of Baguiati.

The service road between Golaghata and Lake Town (parallel to the airport route) and the stretch between Dum Dum Park and Bangur on the other side of the divider are the most dangerous for motorists when it rains.

“Look at the skid marks. A speeding vehicle might even overturn if it skids like that,” said a resident of Lake Town, pointing to wet mud along the road.

As if the slush wasn’t enough to make commuting on VIP Road perilous, construction materials and garbage have been dumped along the airport artery. At some places, builders cashing in on the realty boom along VIP Road have taken over almost one-fourth of the road to stock sand, bricks and stone chips.

Mitra claimed to be unaware of the encroachment. “How can anybody dump construction material on a thoroughfare? We will look into it,” he said.