New Town has three underground subways for pedestrians to cross the street. The Telegraph Salt Lake visits them to see how user-friendly they are. 

Eco Tourism Park 
This subway connects Eco Park to Mother’s Wax Museum and so the bulk of its users are tourists. And so well-maintained is the passage that visitors continue clicking selfies even here!

Besides the staircases are upward-travelling escalators and the walls are covered by brightly-lit pictures of the chief minister inaugurating various projects. Advertisements are solicited underneath. 

Around October 15, some underground drainage work nearby had caused some water leakage into the subway but by October 19 repair work had started. 

“The only problem here is power cuts. The subway faces power cuts once or twice a week and in the monsoons they last for almost half-an-hour,” said the guard.

DLF building 
This area has several housing and office complexes in the vicinity and so there are commuters using it round the clock. There are security guards posted at the two gates and four CCTV cameras keeping watch. The interiors are swanky, with tiled floors and the walls have brightly-lit pictures of the chief minister. 

But there is no escalator and the steps of the staircase are uneven. “I can’t negotiate these steps on my own. I need someone to help me,” said Gita Chakraborty, a senior citizen residing in Animikha Housing Complex, waiting at the gate. “I wish they had an escalator.”

Bandana Chakraborty, a resident of New Town's AC Block, uses the subway daily to catch a bus to reach Calcutta University’s technology campus in Salt Lake Sector III, where she teaches. “Residents of Animikha, Utsa, Greenwood and all the offices here use this subway as it’s not possible to cross the road here otherwise,” she said.

Akankha More 
The first subway of the township is the only one that isn't used. The underpass at this five-point crossing has eight entry/exit points to help people cross the street safely. But ironically people avoid it for the sake of their safety.  

“The subway is always deserted and I feel scared entering it,” said Deepa Gautam, a resident of the nearby Sunrise complex, choosing instead to cross the high-speed corridor on ground level.  

The underpass is indeed lonely. The Telegraph Salt Lake found no commuters inside it last week. Instead, weather-beaten taxi drivers and Metro construction labourers had spread out blankets and were napping in the cool underground. 

“We usually down shutters at 10pm as we don't want any illegal activities down here,” said the guard. There were no CCTVs and just one guard was on duty. “But once the nearby Metro station comes up this subway will get used by many.”

At present the underpass is dirty, has several lights out of order and water from the garden overhead leaks through the roof. Unlike in the other subways, the walls are not adorned by back-lit pictures.