Kolkata: Lakhs of Behala residents along with commuters from South 24 Parganas—headed for Maheshtala, Amtala, and Diamond Harbour—faced a harrowing time travelling to work and back on Monday due to the shutdown of the Taratala Flyover for load testing. The shutdown, which began on Saturday evening, is slated to continue until Tuesday midnight. Such was the inconvenience that an IT employee, Anindita Sen, spent more than 85 minutes to reach Taratala from Behala Manton, which is about 3.5 km. “It took me over three hours to commute from Chowrasta to Sector V. The traffic remained stagnant as I fumed inside the app car. In the process, I missed an important meeting,” said she added. “It was the same feeling as when the Majerhat Bridge collapsed,” said Tirthankar Bose, a Behala resident who spent over two hours reaching Esplanade from Behala Chowrasta.With vehicles forced to use the single lane beside the flyover to move towards Mominpore on Monday, around 2 lakh vehicles used it throughout the day. The morning saw long queues as early as 7:30 am. The slow movement affected the entire Behala stretch of DH Road, right up to Behala Chowrasta, located 3 km away by 10:30 am.With cops diverting vehicles via Roy Bahadur Road and James Long Sarani, along with Biren Roy Road East, the Siriti Crossing witnessed a slowdown of traffic almost 4 km from the epicentre. Huge vehicular queues were also noticed on Sahapur Road leading towards Durgapur Bridge. It was only around 2:30 pm that the situation eased slightly.In the evening, the pressure switched to the Behala-bound flank. The jam then spread from as far as the Command Hospital on one hand, along with Mayurbhanj and Chetla on the other. Even Durgapur Bridge and Karunamoyee Bridge, which cops hoped would take in the extra load, witnessed slow traffic movement.“The usual five-minute commute took around 40 minutes even around 1 pm,” said Rishi Banerjee, a Behala resident who left home late in the day to avoid this exact commotion.During the closure period, commuters have been advised by Kolkata Police to plan their routes carefully to avoid congestion and delays. “Northbound vehicles are encouraged to use the Karunamoyee Bridge or Biren Roy Road, while southbound traffic can opt for the Durgapur Bridge, Hide Road, Nalini Ranjan Avenue, or Karunamoyee Bridge,” the cops stated. Commuters claimed using Hide Road made little sense given that it was a detour that would add several extra kilometres to the journey.
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