The entrance to Salt Lake from the Hyatt Regency side

Salt Lake stadium’s Gate 2 Island

Right at the entrance of Salt Lake from the Hyatt Regency-Purbachal side lies a humongous crater. The pit covers nearly half the width of the road and unsuspecting drivers routinely fall prey to it. “This crater opens up every monsoon. This has been happening for the last three years,” says Sanjoy Purkait, a rickshaw-puller at the stand next to it. “Even when the roads get repaired they never stay in shape for longer than three months. It is so difficult to navigate around the potholes with cars, buses and autos during rush hour.” The rugged road continues till Salt Lake stadium’s Gate 2 Island (above right) and again from Tank 13 to Anindita crossing.

Webel crossing, Sector V

The most treacherous pothole on the flank from Webel crossing to College crossing is a sharp drop of a few inches in the middle of the road without warning. Buses come and tilt to a side when one of their wheels falls into this crater. The rest of the stretch has wavy surfaces, pits and pockmarks on either side. Traffic moves at snail’s pace as drivers slow down to cause minimum damage to their vehicles. Despite the road being two-laned, the craters take up a lot of space and cars are forced to move in a single file. “When I got a job in Sector V last month I had expected state-of-the-art infrastructure in the state’s model IT hub. But all I see is damaged roads. My bus rides to and from here are painful,” says Mrinmoy Karmakar, an employee who crosses this stretch everyday. As the road bends left towards Wipro crossing, the roads are all the more dimpled. The top layer of the tarmac is eroding and there are stone chips all over.

Tank 9 Island

The periphery of this island is an obstacle course even for pedestrians. The condition is the worst near Haveli restaurant where all drivers try to avoid the craters and regularly get into rows for getting in each other’s way. It is most dangerous when water collects in the pits after a shower and vehicles fall into them.

Tank 4 Island

The road around Tank 4 Island and the stretch that leads to Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra are in ruins. “This road had got damaged last year during monsoon too and they repaired it in winter. But a few heavy showers and it returned to square one,” says Ram Poddar, a rickshaw-puller. “No matter how slowly we go passengers always complain how uncomfortable the ride gets on such bad roads.”

At Big Bazaar Island

“The crater on the Broadway is a death trap,” says auto driver Dilip Sahu. When approaching from the Netaji statue side this crater, that covers three fourths of the flank, appears just before the Big Bazaar Island. “Drivers who are aware slow down before approaching this patch but new-comers screech to a halt even when driving at high speed. They could get hit by the vehicles behind them any day.”

Netaji statue to Karunamoyee

Both flanks on this stretch make bumpy rides. The rows of autos, cabs and buses parked on the aisles further reduce space and drivers have to go zig-zag to avoid craters. “Last week a biker met with an accident here,” says auto driver Karthik Chakraborty. “The maintenance costs of autos are skyrocketing this monsoon. Tyres are wearing off fast and our shock absorbers can take no more.”

Opposite Tank 6

This massive crater lies opposite Tank 6, before Purta Bhavan. “The crater isn’t visible from afar when driving and all the buses stop on its left to drop off passengers,” says Souvik Chakravarti, a resident of BE Block. “Any car that tries to overtake the bus at this point falls into the crater. It has caused enough damage to my car’s suspension.” Stone chips that are rubbing off the crater are all over the road and vehicles try to ply in a single file to avoid falling into the ditch.

The civic authorities say they are aware of the damaged roads and promise to start repairing them soon. “We will start work on the roads in Salt Lake as soon as the rains stop. It would be wasteful to carry out repairs during monsoon as the surface will wash off. But the roads will be at their best in time for the Pujas,” says Anupam Dutta, chairman-in-council member in charge of roads, Bidhannagar Municipality. “The tender to repair roads has been floated and a company selected too. The repairs will cost about Rs 4.5 crore.”

Pictures by Sanat Kumar Sinha