Traffic jams at the Ultadanga crossing are a regular feature. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Ranajit Basu takes around 20 minutes to drive from his Esplanade office to the Kankurgachhi crossing. But the next two kilometres on the way to his Salt Lake home take much longer to cover.

“It is madness. Vehicles just don’t move between Kankurgachhi and the PNB crossing in Salt Lake. Remaining stuck in a snarl for at least an hour has become routine,” rued the man in his mid-40s.

According to him, the biggest problem is that he cannot take an alternative route. “I have tried to head to the EM Bypass from Kankurgachhi but even that road is clogged in the evening,” he added.

Basu is not alone. The problem is faced by thousands of commuters heading towards Salt Lake or VIP Road from the Kankurgachhi crossing.

A number of factors — like dug-up roads, absence of traffic policemen, rampant abuse of parking norms on both flanks and buses that block the way of other traffic — cause slow or no movement of vehicles between the Kankurgachhi and Hudco crossings.

“When the tram tracks were concretised, we thought the traffic flow would improve. But now they have dug up a part of the road again. The passage for vehicles is so narrow that a snarl is inevitable,” explained Sananda Bhattacharjee, who travels down the stretch regularly.

The snarls on the road sometimes extend to VIP Road, the PNB crossing in Salt Lake and even the EM Bypass.

“We are aware of the situation. To ease traffic movement, we have asked the public works department to construct bus bays on both sides of the stretch,” said deputy commissioner (traffic) Jawed Shamim.

He added: “Buses, which are slow-moving, will take the bay, while the other vehicles need not stop on the stretch.” A new traffic signal has also been erected on the road.

According to the traffic department, over 7,000 vehicles pass through the Ultadanga and Hudco crossings every hour during peak time. Only four sergeants man the traffic and most of the time, they remain busy handling VIP movement, said officers of the Shyambazar traffic guard.

Many of the officers feel that the bays will not make the traffic flow smoother. “We were not consulted before work started on the bays,” said a traffic policeman, adding that monitoring is a must to ensure that buses use the bays.

“We have been promised that we will be given more men to manage traffic on the stretch,” said Bidyut Roy, officer-in-charge, Shyambazar traffic guard.