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Bengal

Soon, Diet Road to be a reality in Sector-V

The concept of "diet road" may still be unfamiliar in India's transportation system, but Kolkata is all set to get one soon.

Salt Lake Sector-V, Bengal's first IT destination, will get a "diet road" to find solution to its unmanageable traffic congestion, especially in rush hours in the morning and evening.

Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA), the development authority of the tech-sector, has recently decided to construct "diet road" to get rid of such chock-a-blocks.

"We have asked Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to make a comprehensive transport plan that puts the person-commuter at the centre with emphasis on the "diet road". The experts will come up with a plan before we proceed with the work," said Debashis Sen, Additional Chief Secretary of the Bengal government and Chairman of NDITA.

Diet road, often called lane reduction, is actually a technique in transportation planning by which the effective width of the road is reduced in order to achieve systematic improvements. "This concept is popular in foreign countries. Diet road is actually a narrow road where people can walk or ride cycles easily. Driving cars to reach one's destination via the diet road is also possible but it is advisable to avoid it," Sen explained.

Through this kind of road, it will take more time for one to reach his destination. The car cannot move freely through the narrow diet road.

But people would prefer to walk down the diet road as it would save a lot of time for them since they would not get stuck in traffic jams.

There are many key benefits of a diet road including lower vehicular speed, reducing the possibility of road accidents and improving pedestrian's safety. A study which was done by some researchers in the United States indicated that diet roads can reduce road accidents by almost 19-43 percent in a busy area.

NDITA is now working with IIT-Kharagpur to implement the concept. Around 2 lakh people work in Sector-V and approximately four-six lakh people regularly commute to this area.

"We have discussed the traffic jam issue in our internal meeting. The decision was taken recently to do something for the pedestrians. But not only the diet road, we are also considering to construct non-motorised roads exclusively for cyclists and pedestrians," Sen added.
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