Traffic on the Kolkata-Burdwan carriageway of National Highway 19 came to a grinding halt on Wednesday after a part of a guard wall unexpectedly collapsed at Deulmore. Such has been the disruption to traffic on this highway, which is known to carry a large number of vehicles, especially during morning hours. It is learned that as a result of this unexpected structural failure of a part of the guard wall on National Highway 19, traffic movement on this highway has been suspended. For a while, vehicles were diverted onto the service road. But this has also meant that there has been severe congestion on this highway, especially during peak hours of the day when a large number of people were commuting on this highway. There were many instances when drivers were made to slow down or even wait for a while as traffic authorities struggled to manage the traffic movement on this highway.
According to reports, it occurred in the morning when vehicles were moving at a considerable speed on the highway. The incident of the guard wall collapse was first spotted by two Home Guards on duty, Nikhilesh Das and Sheikh Bappa. Recognizing the possible danger that could occur due to the damage to that section of the road, they immediately took action to tackle the situation. Immediately, they took action to divert the traffic away from that section of the road in order to prevent vehicles from entering that hazardous section of the road and causing accidents.
Once the incident of the guard wall collapse had been reported, engineers and technical staff from that particular department arrived at the spot to assess the damage and identify the reason behind it. It was then decided to stop vehicle movement on that section of the highway until repairs are done to that section of the road and it is safe to travel again.
According to the officials, repair work would commence as soon as possible, and commuters were informed that all necessary measures were being taken to resume normal traffic conditions as quickly as possible. Until such time that repairs are done, traffic management measures are in place to ensure safety.
Until such time that the necessary repair work on the damaged part of the flyover is totally done, movement of vehicles on that particular stretch of the flyover will not be possible. Therefore, commuters who would normally use the flyover for their movement will be forced to use the service road for their movement. This diversion of traffic is already resulting in considerable congestion in the area, with considerable queues of vehicles forming on that particular stretch of the road. Many commuters plying between Kolkata and Burdwan are facing considerable difficulties due to the restricted flow of traffic.
Recently, some of the residents of the area have shown serious concern and suspicions over the quality and longevity of the newly constructed highway extension project. According to them, it seems that the overall standard of construction work is dubious. They suspect that the construction work of the newly extended highway might not have been done with proper and high-quality construction materials as is expected for such construction work.
This suspicion of residents is further intensified by the sudden collapse of the guard wall of the newly constructed highway within such a short period of time after its completion. According to them, it is not expected that infrastructure constructed in a proper and standard manner would show signs of damage and destruction within such a short period of time. Due to this reason, people in the area have shown suspicions that either low-quality materials were used for construction or proper checks were not taken during its execution.
Besides the issue of construction quality, there is another issue of concern among residents, which is related to the potential misuse of government funds allocated for the construction of the highway. There is a concern that government funds may have been misused during the construction of the highway, which may have led to compromised construction quality and safety standards.
Despite all the allegations and growing public doubt among residents of the potential misuse of government funds and construction of low-quality work, no official statement or response has come from government authorities and relevant government agencies in charge of supervising and maintaining the construction and maintenance of the highway.
