DESPAIR ABOVE

You know it's monsoon in Calcutta when the skies open up and your daily commute suddenly becomes longer.

Traffic woes struck the city along with lashing rain on Friday afternoon as the car crawl across town stretched from minutes to hours, affecting anyone who couldn't afford to stay home and watch the raindrops hitting the windowpanes.

But showers aren't the only reason why traffic goes for a toss during the rainy season.

Ongoing infrastructure projects that have narrowed carriageways, potholes, malfunctioning traffic signals and manual traffic management have combined to make life difficult for the Calcuttan on many roads.

Metro highlights the monsoon "speedbreakers".

Projects

The Bypass has been hit the hardest by ongoing projects. The six-lane carriageway from Ruby onwards has constricted close to Tagore Park, forcing all Ultadanga-bound vehicles into three lanes. The rest of the road has been cordoned off to create a corridor for the proposed Bus Rapid Transit System.

This is just the first point of constriction and traffic officers say the problem gets compounded when there is rain and traffic slows down. "Near VIP Bazar, a fish market has held up the project and this has added to the problem of traffic congestion," a police officer said.

Further north, down the Bypass, there is another traffic obstruction: pipeline work near Science City.

Small and medium-sized vehicles headed for Park Circus from the south used to take an arm of the Bypass that skirts the Science City point to reach Parama. That road is now closed. The CMC is laying a pipe 400mm in diameter below the road to flush out effluents from Tangra to the canal behind Science City.

"The civic authorities had sought a month-and-a-half for the work. Now, it seems they would need another two months to complete the work," a police officer said. "This means the road will be inaccessible during the monsoon."

Vehicles going towards Ultadanga face another hurdle at the Parama rotary, where the road has been barricaded near the approach to the under-construction flyover. The road width of 12 metres is down to 7.5 metres. "The larger buses take a long time crossing this narrow stretch and turning towards Park Circus, triggering a snarl behind them," the officer said.

Potholes

The road surface along parts of the Bypass, north of Dhalai bridge, has taken a beating. Police officers blame it on the Metro that will connect Garia to the airport, for which pillars are being raised along the middle of the road.

The Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) has extended the width of the Bypass with soil to create a temporary pathway but the surface has started sinking. "Huge potholes have come up at three points: near the Avishikta housing complex, SRFTI and Metro Cash & Carry. A few days ago, we filled these craters with bricks but that hasn't helped," an official said.

On Friday, stubborn snarls along that stretch delayed many Calcuttans headed for office and elsewhere. "The stretch from Hiland Park to Ruby was a nightmare around noon with traffic coming to a standstill for up to 10 minutes. The stretch between Singhabari and the Medica crossing, which has been narrowed for Metro construction, was the worst. Despite the presence of traffic personnel, it took me 20 minutes to cross a stretch that usually takes two minutes," said a resident of Kalikapur on her way to office.

Sources in the police headquarters said they had held a series of meetings with officials of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority and RVNL to get the damaged stretches of the Bypass repaired.

Further north, on the Park Circus connector, craters have sprouted between Boat Club and Gobindo Khatik Road. These craters slow down vehicles going towards Park Circus from Parama. "We have asked the HCC, which is constructing the flyover, to carry out the necessary repairs," said an officer of the Tiljala Traffic Guard.

Craters aren't restricted to the Bypass. A portion of Strand Road - from Clive Ghat to Armenian Ghat - is still under repair. In north Calcutta, Posta has become a narrow patch of road because of work on the Vivekananda Road flyover. This has affected movement of traffic to and from Howrah Bridge.

In south Calcutta, a portion of NSC Bose Road in Tollygunge is getting a coat of mastic asphalt and has been temporarily closed to traffic. Stretches of Diamond Harbour Road have potholes all over. "If it is raining, avoid Diamond Harbour Road. Take James Long Sarani instead," a police officer said.

Signal malfunction

When it rains heavily, trust the traffic signals to blink. Rainwater seeping into the circuits of console boxes is blamed for this routine monsoon problem.

"One of the signals on Hemanta Basu Sarani near the east gate of Raj Bhavan stopped working this afternoon. The signal couldn't be switched off and we had to manually manage this junction," said an officer of the Headquarters Traffic Guard. "The signal showed red but we had to keep vehicles moving. Many drivers were confused and traffic was disrupted."

For commuters, malfunctioning signals mean more traffic pain. "I usually take the Metro to work (from Gitanjali/Naktala station). It was raining today and so I called Uber. A ride that usually takes me around 45 minutes took exactly double the time. And I ended up paying Rs 257 for a distance that costs me Rs 200," said Malini Chatterjee, whose office is in central Calcutta.

Sources said at least two other signals required repairs - the one in Rashbehari Avenue and another at the Theatre Road-AJC Bose Road crossing.

Manual signalling

When the Area Traffic Control project was launched in 2010, Calcutta police promised uninterrupted flow of vehicles down a stretch with all signals turning green in tandem. Five years later, this ambitious project that was meant to cover 109 crossings along seven thoroughfares has been all but forgotten.