Restoration work may be complete before deadline: Civic body
Kolkata: The Army jawans began work to clear the city roads, which were blocked by branches of trees which got uprooted due to the aftermath of cyclone Amphan, on Saturday evening.
About 8,000 trees got uprooted on Wednesday after Amphan hit the city with wind speed varying anything between 135 km per hour to 140 km per hour. Firhad Hakim, chairman of the Board of Administrators said on Friday that normalcy in the city would be restored within a week.
Senior civic officials felt on Saturday the pace of work has gathered momentum and it this is maintained then normalcy is likely to be restored before the deadline.
Hakim regretted that despite so much work some people had been criticising the KMC deliberately and had put up road blocks. We are trying to find those who are pulling up the strings from behind and appropriate steps would be taken against them."
Twenty two teams of KMC are working to remove the trees from the roads. Following instruction from Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, party workers have joined hands with the conservancy workers of KMC to cut the branches and clear the lanes and by lanes.
Sandip Bakshi, administrator of ward 72 in Bhowanipore along with his team helped the civic workers to clear the roads like Rajshekhar Basu Sarani, Hazra Road, Beltola Road in Bhowanipore. Similarly, Mohun Gupta, administrator of ward 17 helped to remove the trees from Hari Ghosh Street and its neighbourhood, Beadon Road and its adjoining areas.
"Traffic along the main thoroughfares like Sarat Bose Road, Chittaranjan Avenue, Asutosh Mukherjee Road, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road, Shyambazar five Point crossing, Southern Avenue, APC Road, AJC Bose Road, Vivekananda Road had been restored on Friday. On Saturday most of the lanes and by lanes have been cleared," said a senior civic official.
Senior civic officials said "Cutting the branches of big trees and removing them to the dumping ground is a herculean task. Work is being done in war footing and we are trying hard to restore normal life."
Meanwhile, the Army in an official communiqué said: "Based on request from the Government of West Bengal, Indian
Army has provided three columns to assist the Kolkata City Civil Administration in the aftermath of Cyclone
Amphan." The Army jawans began clearing the northern flank of Southern Avenue on Saturday. They deployed heavy duty electric cutter and cut the branch that had blocked the road near the statue of Hemanta Mukhopadhyay.
