Govt designates 'green zone' for U-17 World Cup matches

Kolkata: After transforming Swami Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Kirangan to that of international standards, the Mamata Banerjee government has taken a unique step to ensure that the area around the stadium remains less polluted by declaring all the important thoroughfares in the vicinity as "green zone".

According to a senior official of the state Urban Development department, the entire stretch of thoroughfares from Kolkata Airport to Milan Mela and the Rajarhat Main Road have been declared as green zone.

The green zone means the area will remain free from dumping of building materials on the roads, there will be no unnecessary hoardings to be displayed in the entire stretch and no parking of vehicles. The main idea is to keep the area dust free so that delegates from the countries where the level of pollution is not as high as it is here do not face any trouble.

Steps have also been taken to keep the roads dust free by watering them twice a day and at the same time plants have also been planted on both sides of certain stretches of the roads. Steps have also been taken so that the roads and the pavements are cleaned at regular intervals.

It may be mentioned that pavements and medians on Rajarhat Main Road have been beautified in the past few years after the change of guard in the state. Similarly, beautification of pavements on both Kazi Nazrul Islam Sarani, commonly known as VIP Road, and Eastern Metropolitan Bypass have given a completely new look to the area and taking a ride on the roads while heading towards the stadium gives a good feeling. Now, with the stretch being declared as "green zone", the pollution level will also get checked.

The police are also playing a major role in keeping the area free from pollution as special attention has been given to resolve all issues regarding parking.

On Wednesday, for the first time a match of the FIFA Under-17 Football World Cup has taken place at Swami Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Kirangan. Gyanwant Singh, Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police, said: "Despite being a working day today (Wednesday), the traffic has been managed well."

It may be mentioned that additional policemen were deployed to ensure smooth movement of vehicles.

Even residents of Salt Lake did not face any inconvenience as there was no chaos even as additional vehicles poured into the area.

The app-based car parking management system has helped the people a lot as they did not have to keep moving around in search of a parking space.