KoPT allocates Rs 45 crore to upgrade roads in port area

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) has allocated Rs 45 crore for three years, starting from 2015, for the development of city roads that fall under its jurisdiction.

In the current financial year, the KoPT was planning to take up the repair and renovation work of a 10-km stretch, covering Transport Depot Road, Oil Installation Road, New Road, Hoboken Road, Strand Bank Road and Kantapukur Road, at a cost of Rs 24 crore, a KoPT spokesperson said.

Despite an economic slowdown, the KoPT authority had spent Rs 6 crore in the fiscal 2015-16 to repair another stretch of 10 km, covering Taratala Road, Hide Road and Circular Garden Reach Road, for the benefit of local people and port users, he said.

Last fiscal too, the repair and renovation work was undertaken over a stretch of five-km route - Coal Deck Road, Sonai Road and Sonarpur Road - at a cost of Rs 15 crore.

"This project, spanning five kilometers, has been scheduled for completion before March 2018," the spokesperson said.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had urged the KoPT authorities to repair the roads that come under their jurisdiction, he said, adding that the civic body, too, had taken initiatives to improve the infrastructure in the port area.