So far, 355 km roads damaged due to floods

Around 335 km stretch of roads in different South Bengal districts have been damaged so far due to the "man-made" floods.

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently said that roads, embankments and bridges were damaged due to the floods.

According to the sources in the Public Works Department (PWD), roads are mainly damaged in districts including Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, East and West Midnapore.

A senior official said that they have received information from officials from the districts that around 207 km stretch of roads remained inundated for quite some days due to the floods. Most of the roads have got damaged as they remained inundated. "But we must say that the damage was comparatively lesser as during the regime of the present government, repair works take place more often and more stress is given on quality control," he said.

Still there are some places where certain stretches of roads are under water. For example, roads in Khararhazipur in West Midnapore are still under water.

The areas where most roads were damaged include Amta and Udaynarayanpur in Howrah, Armabagh in Hooghly and Ghatal in West Midnapore.

There are some places like Bankura and Labhpur where bridges were damaged. Satighat bridge in Bankura was damaged and it needs urgent repair works done. Moreover, some roads in these places were completely washed away.

The state PWD is all set to initiate the repair works and construction of roads as required. But they will be initiating the work a few days after the water completely recedes.

"We will find that some more stretches of roads were damaged after the water completely recedes. The actual picture will be then clear to us. Moreover, the repairing work will be good when it is done after the water recedes completely," the officer said.