Naka checks, anti-drink drive to intensify in festive week

Kolkata: Learning from the past week, Lalbazar is gearing up for a rush on the roads from morning itself this Christmas week. "With Christmas falling in the middle of the week, we expect a sizable crowd in the zone surrounding Park Street-Allen Park-Shakespeare Sarani-Middleton Row and not just in the evening on Dec 24-25. Hence, we cannot allow the crowd to stop at any one spot for too long. Neither can cross-moving crowds be allowed. Ideally, visitors can enter Park Street from the Park Street Metro station but leave using the Maidan Metro station. Naka checks and anti-drink driving checks will be doubled from what are operational at present," said an officer.Park Street will be shut to vehicular traffic on Christmas Day as and when required, said cops, even though Park Street will not be made two-way until 3 am the previous night. Usually, Park Street is made two-way from 10 am. According to a Kolkata Traffic Police notification, Park Street, from JL Nehru Road crossing up to Wood Street crossing (and the entire Middleton Street), will be closed. Thus, only eastbound traffic will ply on Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani. Both bound traffic will ply along Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road from Royd Street crossing up to Park Street crossing. Just like Park Street, Russel Street will be no entry for vehicular traffic, and Little Russel Street from Shakespeare Sarani crossing. If required, westbound traffic will be restricted along Kyd Street from Free School Street.
On several important roads like Shakespeare Sarani, Camac Street, Little Russel Street, Lord Sinha Road, and Hungerford Street, the decision to make them two-way for traffic will be taken during the day depending on the decision from Lalbazar. Park Street and AJC Bose Road bound vehicles coming from Outram Road will avail Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani to Camac Street, then Short Street, Wood Street to avail Park Street, or all along either Camac Street or JL Nehru Road to avail AJC Bose Road. Those Park Street bound vehicles coming via Mayo Road, JL Nehru Road will take Kyd Street up to Free School Street, then Royd Street up to RA Kidwai Road, then a right turn to avail Park Street.In addition to Park Street, on Christmas Day, vehicular traffic may also be regulated around the Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial, Birla Planetarium, Alipore Zoo, Paresh Nath Temple, Kali Temple at Kalighat, Thanthania Kalibari, New Market sector around Lindsey Street, Birla Mandir on Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, and Millennium Park. The massive pre-Christmas crowd across Kolkata's hotspots last Sunday and multiple smaller carnivals lined up across the city have led cops to decide on a morning till post-midnight deployment in the city, lasting close to 20 hours, on each of the next two days. Not just Park Street, a larger deployment is expected at some of the "newer" Christmas revelry zones like Kasba, Sarat Bose Road, Patuli, and Thakurpukur.Lalbazar has also decided to deploy a bigger contingent at Park Street-Maidan than last year as there are some Bangladeshi. The deployment will begin as early as 9 am at the Alipore zoo. Local police will be part of this setup. The deployment will end not before 2 am the next morning when cops deployed at Park Street will get the stand-down order. The police on Monday itself implemented a peak hour vehicular circulation strategy around the Alipore zoo and all the way to Park Street and Esplanade, as several guards worked in coordination in what many believe was a mock run for the next 48 hours leading to Christmas. "We put a cop at each crossing at least, however less important they might possibly be, even between Ekbalpore and Maidan-Park Street," said a senior officer.For the next two days, the focus in the morning will be the Alipore zoo, St Paul's Cathedral, and Science City. By afternoon, this will shift towards Park Street and the newer joints of Kasba. Similarly, manning bigger crossings – the AJC Road-DL Khan Road, the Park Street-JL Nehru Road, and JL Nehru-Cathedral Road will see tweaking of normal crossing timings based on requirements. A huge challenge will be to counter drink driving, said cops who are likely to continue with special raids every day now.The cops have also decided not to allow anyone to roam around and block the eatery entrances at Park Street, a major irritant for diners and hotel owners each year on New Year's Eve and the New Year. For regular visitors, thus, the year-end festivities will feel more like pandal-hopping. The traffic-flow plan, however, is unlikely to be tweaked. "Given the amount of pressure on EM Bypass as people are travelling to Eco Park, Nicco Park, and Science City, we have redrawn our morning plans where we are putting more men on the roads," claimed the police."We will be stressing smooth pedestrian flow around Alipore zoo, Victoria Memorial, Park Circus, Exide crossing, and Science City. Jaywalking has to be stopped. All traffic guards have been instructed accordingly," said an IPS officer. "We don't plan to put too much pressure on JL Nehru Road. Vehicles towards Behala, Alipore, and New Alipore may be told to use Red Road and Mayo Road from Esplanade and Dalhousie," the officer said.

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