Potholes are back on Belgharia Expressway, five days after repair

KOLKATA: Craters have started to surface once again along the Belgharia Expressway stretch that was repaired by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) just a few days back.
TOI had on August 12 written how a stretch of Belgharia Expressway had turned treacherous for motorists and commuters. Craters along this 50m stretch were causing accidents frequently and forced the vehicles to crawl during the rush hour.While police had been using stopgap measures to fill up the craters, NHAI and PWD, which are supposed to maintain the expressway, blamed each other of evading responsibility of the repairs.
“We realised the trouble the commuters were facing and thus began a patchwork on the stretch. However, a full-fledged repair, including relaying of the road surface, can be done once the monsoon is over,” said a senior NHAI official. NHAI had filled up the potholes and levelled the craters on August 18 after TOI reported about commuters’ plight. But within four days of the repairs, the warts have started to resurface.
“This portion of the road keeps crumbling every other day. I saw the authorities repair the road earlier this week but the craters have surfaced again. I don’t know why the authorities undertake such shoddy repair works,” said Soumya Mukherjee, a regular commuter.
Bidhannagar City Police, which had earlier repaired the broken stretch all by themselves by laying broken bricks on the potholes, also raised questions on the quality of repair work. “We understand that it is difficult to conduct a thorough repair in the midst of monsoon. But if the road disintegrates within days of the repair work, it gets very difficult for us to manage the traffic,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police.