Condition of Kolkata's roads better than any metro in India: Mayor

Kolkata: Mayor Sovan Chatterjee claimed on Tuesday that the condition of roads in the city is better than any other metro city in the country, even during the monsoon season.

Responding to allegations from Congress councillor Prakash Upadhyay at the monthly meeting of the civic body that the roads in the city are in poor condition, Chatterjee said: "It is easy to accuse us saying that work is not happening. I wish you take the effort to go to Diamond Harbour (DH) Road and find out on your own whether it has been repaired or not. We are already carrying out repair works in every possible dry spell that we are getting and before the Pujas, all the roads in the city will be spruced up."

Upadhyay had alleged that DH Road and the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass were two of the most important city roads that are in deplorable condition.

Chatterjee said that DH Road is under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department (PWD), while the EM Bypass is under Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).

"We had held a meeting with both of these agencies and had prodded them to carry out repair work and it is going on. In EM Bypass, Metro project work is being done by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, which is leading to damage of the road. One has to understand that complete repair work cannot be taken up now and hence we can only do patchwork for the time being. However, full-fledged repair work will be completed before the Pujas," the Mayor added.

He maintained that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given out strict instruction to repair all the roads. It was decided that the KMC would act as the nodal agency in repairing the roads, including the ones that fall under the jurisdiction of other state government agencies and would later settle the costs with the concerned agencies.