The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has launched an accelerated programme to repair nearly 150 roads before Mahalaya on October 10, with work planned across major traffic corridors, office districts and smaller local streets. The deadline comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Kolkata for the inauguration of a major Durga Puja event at Eden Gardens.
According to the report, the civic body’s roads department has instructed engineers and workers to complete the repairs on an emergency footing. The Kolkata Police has already sent the corporation a list of roads in poor condition, helping determine which stretches are to be taken up before the festival period.
The repair schedule covers both heavily used arterial roads and less busy internal streets. Work on busy routes will be carried out at night to reduce disruption to traffic, while repairs on smaller lanes and comparatively quieter roads will be undertaken during the day.
Among the roads identified for work are stretches in and around Dharmatala, the office district around BBD Bagh, Ashutosh Mukherjee Road, the EM Bypass, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road, NSC Bose Road and Raja SC Mullick Road. Repairs have already begun at the Chingrighata and EM Bypass crossing and on sections of Chittaranjan Avenue, the report said.
Some roads that have suffered comparatively limited damage have received patchwork repairs. The corporation’s wider target is to complete work on all the listed roads within the nine-day window before Mahalaya. The compressed schedule places the focus on coordinating road crews, traffic management and access to busy commercial and administrative areas.
The road repair drive follows repeated complaints about deteriorating road conditions in Kolkata. The condition of several roads worsened during the monsoon, while the corporation has said that continuous rainfall disrupted routine repair work this year. The source report did not provide a road-wise cost estimate, details of the repair methods or a post-repair monitoring plan.
The repairs are also being planned ahead of the festive period, when movement across central Kolkata and other major corridors typically becomes more intensive. The roads named in the programme include routes serving office areas, arterial connections and crossings that carry traffic between important parts of the city. Any work on these roads will therefore require coordination between the civic body and the police, particularly where night-time closures or diversions are necessary.
The report also notes a contrast with neighbouring urban areas. Residents have raised complaints that similar urgency has not been visible in the municipal areas of Howrah and Bidhannagar, although the report does not provide details of their road maintenance schedules or official responses.
The immediate civic milestone is the completion of the targeted repairs before Mahalaya on October 10. The report also says that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may inspect road conditions in person before the deadline, while Kolkata Municipal Corporation engineers and workers continue the repair programme.
