Common crawl on VIP Road

Very Irritating Passage: that’s what VIP Road means to the commuter forced to brave its infamous snarls day in, night out.

From the flier headed for the airport to the father in a hurry to meet his family after a long day, barely anyone escapes the anarchy along the 8km stretch from Ultadanga till the No. 1 airport gate from 8am till 11.30pm every day of the week.

If non-existent policing is the trigger for chaos at every crossing, unruly bus, taxi and auto drivers compound the congestion with their lack of road sense. Throw in cars, motorcyclists, rickshaw-pullers and pedestrians crossing the road every few hundred metres from Dum Dum Park onwards and you have the equivalent of a traffic Armageddon.

Metro spent over two hours on Saturday evening dissecting the anatomy of road chaos on VIP Road.

Kestopur

Waiting for our turn, we marvel at how cars, cycles, rickshaws, two-wheelers, pedestrians and even the occasional stray dog manage to cross over safely to Kestopur from Prafulla Kanan and vice-versa every few minutes. A couple of cops are around, but they look clueless. Or maybe just not bothered.

Culprits: An illegal auto stand barely 10 metres ahead of the crossing on the airport-bound flank eats up much of the meagre road space, but the cops apparently dare not mess with the drivers. Commuters wait in front of the parked autos for buses that instantly stop when someone waves a hand. Then there are the taxis and the me-first motorists in a mad scramble for the little space left on the road to break free.

“Even when the signal turns green, the road isn’t clear for vehicles to pass. Can’t they have the auto and bus stops at least 50 metres away from the crossing?” demands Animesh Pal, who nearly missed an afternoon flight to Delhi last month.

Remedy: Stern policing can ensure buses and autos do not block the thoroughfare. Also, vehicles shouldn’t be allowed to take a right or U-turn at the crossing. Pavements should be freed of encroachment and pedestrians stopped from crossing the road before the signal turns red. And, yes, whatever happened to the promised flyover?

Baguiati

Scene: After Kestopur comes the Battle of Baguiati. Pedestrians cross the road at will, autos queue up almost in the middle and buses swerve right and left, depending on where the next passenger is standing.

Culprits: A market that almost spills over to the carriageway, autos who rule the road and cops who don’t care.

“The autos on the airport route are mostly illegal ones,” complains Shiladitya Banerjee, a resident of the area.

Remedy: Block one of the two crossings, deploy policemen with ropes to control pedestrians and crack the whip on autos and buses.

Kaikhali

Scene: Better than Kestopur, Baguiati and Joramandir, but that’s not saying much. We found traffic on Saturday evening to be normal but the morning rush hour sees the car queue to take a U-turn stretch up to 200 metres.

Problem: Buses on three routes take right turns towards Narayanpur and Lauhati, slowing down traffic flow. Also, like everywhere else, autos pick up or drop passengers almost in the middle of the road.

Remedy: Ensure that vehicles waiting to take a right or U-turn do not set up two to three parallel queues, blocking the entire road.