Subir Roy: Kolkata gets Bangalored
OFFBEAT
| Years ago, the city sought to put a fresh foot forward, let sunshine seep through again as hawkers were made to disappear from main thoroughfares, and an all-round effort was made to strengthen infrastructure. Roads improved, garbage became conspicuously less visible, flyovers at key intersections eased traffic flows, and water logging during the rains decreased. |
| Unfortunately, the curve that had been rising for the past few years has clearly reversed and things are more trying than they were a year ago. As with Bangalore, it's the traffic that's getting the city. Business is booming, real estate is skyrocketing, traffic is multiplying and jams are becoming horrendous. |
| This choking on a boom is most telling in South Kolkata's Prince Anwar Shah Road. The traffic there, particularly the jams at the Jadavpur police station end, is killing. But that's nothing compared to what's on the way "" a massive development that will create over 1,500 posh apartments. What will happen when that many families with cars add to the mayhem in two years? |
| Civil society is up in arms as a committee of the government has found the developers guilty of poaching on an adjoining water body that was supposed to have been left intact. Inevitably, the government's own pollution control set-up has cut a sorry figure. To mitigate the encroachment, it asked the developers to create an alternative water body. Can a swimming pool substitute a water body meant to support nature's complex life system? |
| The big blow to the city's self-esteem came when recently, a night's heavy rain logged out large parts of the north of the city. The culprit? Almost half of the pumping stations (the city is in a bowl from which excess water has to be pumped out) were not working. One was undergoing elaborate repairs in July when such work should have been completed during winter! |
| I found evidence of the city of garbage going back to its old habits. I asked around and was told that when it rains, garbage clearance goes for a six. The city's conservancy staff takes a rain check at the drop of a shower. I suspect the pumping stations not working and the garbage not getting cleared are symptoms of the politically reversing gear. Last year the leftists came back to power at the municipal corporation after an interregnum during which Mayor Subrata Mukherjee won a reputation for being a doer. |
| It can be argued that the West Bengal government is more forward looking than Karnataka's. Peripheral cities are being planned to decongest the mother city. An agreement with an Indonesian business interest has been signed for a satellite city, an expressway, and what have you. |
| But if you think Kolkata's asset is to have at the helm a better bunch of state political leaders, think again. Its iconic Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has just had his nose bloodied in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the powerful chief of the state's cricket body. But he began retreating well before that. In a pre-election move he said goodbye to the attempt to rid the city's main streets of ugly hawkers' stalls. Post election, his desire to rid the city of hand-drawn rickshaws was buried. Things may well get back on track, but right now, all the omens look negative. |