New Town, Sector V to get model safety roads soon

Kolkata: New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) and Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA) are planning to set up model safe roads in areas under their jurisdiction.

Two roads have been selected, with one in Sector V and another in New Town. These were studied by a research team (JP Associates) for several months. The report was presented in a workshop recently.

DC (Traffic) Bidhannagar, traffic inspectors of Sector V and New Town, engineers and senior officers of HIDCO, NDITA and NKDA were present during the presentation, which was followed by a discussion. The report highlighted how small interventions can make the roads safer for pedestrians. 318 specific recommendations were made. Each of them is location specific, complete with latitude-longitude marking and photos.

Some of the recommendations were regarding traffic signages that have faded away long ago. Some showed how tree branches have obscured traffic signals in certain areas. Some talked of zebra crossings leading to a blocked end of a central median.

Some showed how pedestrians cross the central median in the midst of traffic, but the drivers suffer from low visibility due to landscaped garden hedges. Many talked about interruptions in pavements due to trees, shrubs, pillar boxes, hawkers and more.

An optimum speed limit of 40 kmph was also recommended after extensive studies on the two streets. The study was done by SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) as part of its CSR activity in Kolkata and 4 to Street 13 of Sector V Salt Lake that runs from Wipro via College More to Ring Road was studied in Nabadiganta Town.

On the other hand, Street 165 running in front of Snehodiya from Pride Building to Smart Garden/BSNL office was studied in New Town.

Typical town roads were taken up for the study instead of expressways, bypasses and major arterial roads, so that the results can be applied elsewhere in the two towns.