A 150m stretch of VIP Road between Lake Town and Bangur Avenue is closed to traffic for the past few days to facilitate the construction of a pedestrian subway.

Guard rails and bamboo poles have been placed horizontally across both the airport and Ultadanga-bound flanks of VIP Road - near the Bangur Avenue crossing and about 100m north of the Lake Town footbridge.

Airport-bound traffic is being diverted through a two-lane service road along the water body beside VIP Road, while Ultadanga-bound vehicles are being diverted through a bus lane.

The diversions are causing snarls during rush hours."Vehicles are moving at a snail's pace during rush hours. The snarl extends till Ultadanga on the airport-bound flank and till Kestopur on the other flank," a traffic police officer said.

"We have constructed the gates of the subway. Now the tunnel is being bored," said a PWD official. Two earth-moving machines (JCB payloaders) have been deployed to dig the tunnel.

Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose said a pedestrian subway near the Bangur crossing of the VIP Road had been a long-standing demand of the residents. "There have been several accidents on VIP Road. Once the subway is opened, the number of accidents are likely to come down," Bose told Metro.

Three more subways are likely to be constructed on VIP Road - near Dum Dum Park, Sreebhumi and Golaghata.