Death traps in every artery

Seventeen-year-old Arijit Maity was crushed to death on Tuesday night by a truck that veered off course while negotiating a dug-up stretch of GT Road. The authorities promptly carried out patchwork, but important roads in Howrah, as well as other stretches of GT Road, remain death traps.

Seventeen-year-old Arijit Maity was crushed to death on Tuesday night by a truck that veered off course while negotiating a dug-up stretch of GT Road. The authorities promptly carried out patchwork, but important roads in Howrah, as well as other stretches of GT Road, remain death traps. Metro visits some spots that have seen mishaps in the past six months.

GT Road

The portion of the road on which Arijit was run over had been dug up three months ago by the public works department (PWD) for work on a water pipeline. It took a teenager’s life for the road to levelled overnight.

The site of the mishap is in ward 11, where Bally municipality chairman Krishna Chandra Hazra is the councillor. Local residents alleged that repeated requests to the authorities to repair the road had fallen on deaf ears.

On the night of October 2 last year, motorcyclist Ravinder Sharma, 30, was run over by a truck trying to avoid a pothole near Don Bosco, Liluah. Here, too, patchwork was done after the mishap.

There’s another danger zone, spread over 10 ft, near Lalbaba College. The eroded and potholed surface has not been repaired for nearly 10 months. Mishaps often leave pedestrians injured.

Tamajit Mukherjee, a second-year B.Com student of the college, said: “We have to risk our lives to cross the road.”

Lalababu Shire Road

Mishaps are as common on the road as potholes. One of the deepest craters is near Ambika jute mill. A motorcyclist, in a bid to avoid it, had hit Puja Pandey, a Class V student of Belur Janata School, about 10 days back. She was confined to bed for a week.

Deonarayan Pandey, the girl’s father, said: “My daughter had a narrow escape. Had she suffered a head injury, she would not have survived.”

Local resident Bablu Dhar said: “This pothole causes frequent mishaps, but Bally municipality cannot be bothered to take up repairs.”

Girish Ghosh Road

The condition of the road is bad in general. It is barely useable near Central Cotton Mills. More than 200 trucks ply on the road every day to and from Bajrangbali, one of the largest iron markets in the state.

It’s only a matter of time before a major accident takes place on Girish Ghosh Road, feel local residents. “The road is one of the busiest in Howrah. We have no idea why Bally municipality does not repair it,” said Anand Agarwal, who has a shop in the area.

Officialspeak: Howrah police superintendent Niraj Kumar Singh said: “Most mishaps in Howrah take place because of the poor condition of the roads.”

PWD minister Kshiti Goswami said: “There is no dearth of money for repair of potholes. The executive engineer should have repaired the potholes on GT Road long ago. I shall talk to him tomorrow.”