Needed: Blueprint to sort out Sector V traffic mess

KOLKATA: The stretch from Chingrihata on EM Bypass to Rajarhat via Sector V has turned into a traffic bottleneck. Thousands of cars enter the area daily and with the East-West Metro from Sector V to Sealdah slated to start by 2011, traffic volume will only increase. Things will go out of hand unless proper plans are not made from now. The Nabadiganta Township Authority (NDITA) is trying to address the problem, but traffic planners say that much more needs to be done to manage traffic systematically on this stretch. At present, there are over600 companies operating out of Sector V and more than 6,000 cars plying in thearea. Most enter Sector V through the Salt Lake Bypass from Chingrihata. Also,more than 200 state and private buses operate here every day. NDITA had earlierasked the transport department to conduct a survey for an updated traffic volumeof Sector V and has also asked the RTO not to issue fresh permits for new busroutes entering the township. The two biggest problems for NDITA areillegal roadside parking and the ever-increasing traffic volume. NDITA ispresently working on improving the traffic system. "For some time, trafficmovement was affected as some stretches were dug up for underground pipelinework by Jusco. Now this is complete and traffic movement has regularisedsomewhat. We are now working on imposing one-way rules on some of the roads inSector V," said NDITA chairman S A Ahmed. He also stressed on the need to eradicate illegal parking, which eats into the roadspace. "Much of the problem has already been solved and we are working on this. Two multi-tier parking lots will be set up soon," Ahmed said. One of these will be set up after the existing CSTC bus depot beside Wipro building is revamped. The other has been planned at the ALBL block-Sector V junction near Nayapatti.However, traffic planners said greater planning is required to prevent a bigger traffic mess in Sector V. "Traffic management in Sector V is already in a mess and it will only go out of control in the next three to four years unless proper planning is not made from now. The problem is that Sector V roads are very narrow. Additional road space is required to tackle the massive inflow of vehicles. Two- or three-tier elevated corridors have to be set up to ease traffic flow," said traffic planner Monideep Chatterjee, a former Kolkata Metropolitan Planning Committee member.Experts felt that anelevated road is immediately needed at the Nicco Park junction, apart from aramp from the existing Wipro to Nicco Park flyover. "Traffic bottleneck isoccurring at the Nicco Park junction where vehicles coming from Chingrihata aretrying to enter Sector V leading to the SDF Building crossing," said a trafficplanner.