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KMC officials to meet today to discuss ways to ease traffic congestion in city

3 December 2012

statesman news service

KOLKATA, 3 DEC: A high-level meeting to improve traffic movement in the city will be held in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) office tomorrow.  Senior civic officials and their counterparts in city police will take part in the meeting which will be chaired by member mayor-in-council (roads) Mr Atin Ghosh.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed police to take up measures for fast movement of vehicles in the city. Mr Ghosh said a co-operation between the KMC and other agencies like police, the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) and the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is required to improve the traffic situation.  

The Kolkata Police has already proposed to construct eight-foot over bridges in the city by private firms who will put up billboards on them.  

The roads where the proposed over bridges will come up include, Esplanade East (near KC Das), Dorina crossing, Lalbazar Street, Moulali, Mahatma Gandhi Roa-College Street intersection, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Chittaranjan Avenue crossing, Chittaranjan Avenue BB Ganguly Street intersection and Chittaranjan Avenue-Ganesh Avenue intersection.  

Senior police officers said the over bridges will help faster movement of traffic. There is traffic jam on Raja Rammohan Sarani-BB Ganguly crossing and BBD Bag almost every day. The only solution would be construction of foot over bridges on Lalbazar Street and Chittaranjan Avenue- BB Ganguly Street crossing. Because of construction of Parama island flyover many vehicles coming to the Central business district that used to take Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, Park Circus seven point crossing, AJC Bose flyover, Hospital Road and Red Road to reach BBD Bag are taking either Beliaghata Main Road or Manicktala Main Road. Also, Narkeldanga Main Road is closed due to the construction of East-West Metro.

So, there is tremendous pressure on Beliaghata Main Road and BB Ganguly Street.  Senior civic officials said the experience with foot over bridge is not very encouraging.

The over bridges at the intersection of  Mandeville Garden, Sealdah, in front of ESI hospital and Ultadanga opposite BC Roy's statue and Dhakuria are hardly used.

People cannot be forced to use the foot over bridges. It will help the private firms that will construct them to mint money. The KMC will wait for the committee's report before giving clearance to police, a senior official of KMC said.

However, they said that to improve traffic movement in the city all political parties should arrive at a consensus imposing restrictions on meetings in busy congested areas. Once there is a traffic jam on a particular road, the surrounding roads are also badly hit.

" This is the most important issue. If  political meetings and rallies are restricted, traffic movement in the city will automatically improve," he said.