2-day fest to create awareness over using subways

Kolkata: The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) is organising a unique two-day Mangaldeep festival to create awareness among people to use subways to avoid road accidents as part of the "Safe Drive Save Life" programme in New Town.

The Akankshya junction in Action Area 2 is a confluence of seven roads. The major traffic is witnessed along the Airport-Salt Lake stretch but other roads also have severe load. To avoid traffic accidents, an underground subway network was planned in such a manner that there were multiple options for users to either reach a particular road on the one side or to the central island on the other.

The island was beautified by noted architect Prabir Mitra. A water body with landscaped area was set up and a sculpture was installed which was named Mangaldeep by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. There are CCTV cameras and security guards in the underground subway and the walls have been decorated with pictures. A solar-powered traffic signal has also been installed recently. It has been noticed that people are not using the subways and are crossing busy roads with heavy vehicular traffic risking their lives. Keeping this in mind, the NKDA decided to hold a two-day programme to create awareness on using the underground subways.

There are three underground subways in New Town. Besides, the Akankshya intersection, the two others are situated at Nazrul Tirtha and Eco Park.