Kolkata: Rain spanner in civic road repair drive ahead of Pujas – Times of India

KOLKATA: The civic body will give priority to broken stretches that lead to major Puja pandals when it takes up repair of the city’s battered roads. According to a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) roads department official, the civic body was ready with its borough-wise road repair teams but has been struggling to initiate the drive due to consistent rain.
“We are upset with the rain throwing a spanner in our road repair drive,” said an official.

KMC board of administrators (BoA) chairman Firhad Hakim, said, “We are ready to take up a repair drive of all major roads to give the commuters relief from bumpy rides during the Pujas. But the rain is playing spoilsport. We need a dry spell of at least eight days to take up the repair drive across the city.”
“We will give priority to the major roads which have developed craters. Several such roads are considered very important due to their proximity to big Puja pandals and we will take up the repair of these roads first,” an official said.
After conducting a preliminary survey, the Kolkata Police had handed over a list of 350 roads to the KMC for urgent repairs. A KMC civil engineering department official said the civic road repair teams were set to wrap up the repair drive across the city by October 2. “If it does not rain further, we can wrap up the patchwork before Mahalaya,” the official said.
Organising committees of some of the pujas that have requested the police and the civic body to take care of the roads near their pandals include Haridevpur 41 Pally, Mudiali, Kasba Tarun Dal, several pujas in the Maniktala-Kankurgachhi belt, College Square, Md Ali Park, Sealdah, Park Circus Sarbojanin, several pujas in the Bhowanipore area, Hazra Road, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road and Raja Subodh Mullick Road.