The busy Jessore Road-Lake Town intersection has been dug up to lay sewage lines, hitting traffic hard. Residents complain of tardy pace of work, undertaken by the Calcutta Environmental Improvement Trust (CEIT). Metro runs a check....

Autos & officegoers

Half the width of Jessore Road has been dug up, resulting in a bottleneck, especially during office hours.

Autorickshaws ferrying passengers from Satgachhi, Dum Dum Park, Bangur Avenue and Lake Town to the Belgachhia Metro Railway station now take much longer to negotiate the stretch. “The journey is delayed by at least half an hour during office hours,” Masuma Parveen Laskar, a Dum Dum Park resident, said while on her way to his Park Street office.

Randip Gupta, standing in an autorickshaw queue at Lake Town, said some of the auto stands have been removed because of the decrease in the road width. “Hence, vehicles are difficult to come by.

Real estate projects

Trucks carrying building material for real estate projects between Bangur Avenue and Lake Town, like Diamond City North, Avani Oxford and Avani Europa, add to the traffic chaos.

Goods carriages parked on the stretch between Jaya cinema and Jessore Road further narrow the road width. Under normal conditions, plying of trucks hamper the smooth running of traffic but during repairs, they make the situation more difficult.

Buses

A lot of private and state buses ply on Jessore Road and Lake Town. The buses on routes 221, 223, 215 and DN8 take U-turns at the junction and hold up traffic.

Rickshaws

Cycle-rickshaws plying on a busy thoroughfare like Jessore Road add to the chaos at the Lake Town intersection. “With the road work in progress, the situation is scary,” said a commuter.

Official version

“The work is part of the CEIT project to lay sewage pipes from the Duttabagan pumping station to Bagjola canal,” said Tushar Ghosh, the chief engineer (drainage and sewerage) of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

“The stretch has been divided into blocks, with work being taken up in one block at a time. Work in the Lake Town area started earlier this month and will end in another 10 days,” he added.

Another senior official said many workers from the districts had been on leave because of the panchayat elections. “We lost many man-hours as many had decided to stay back for the post-poll celebrations.”