West Bengal plans truck terminal chain

The state government has firmed up plans to set up five truck terminals in the outskirts to keep away huge truck traffic from the city.

Chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, while inaugurating the Dhulagarh truck terminal, said Kolkata witnesses movement of as many as 50,000 trucks a day. This results in heavy traffic congestion and also other infrastructure problems.

"While the Dhulagarh Truck Terminal is being inaugurated today, four more would be set up in Budge Budge, Rajarhat, Dankuni and Kona," Bhattacharjee said.

He added, "The Budge Budge terminal is likely to be completed by November this year while the other three are on the drawing board," the chief minister said.

The purpose behind setting up these terminals is to restrict trucks from travelling into the city. Trucks from other cities headed to Kolkata will not be allowed beyond these terminals.

However, about 1.5 lakh smaller vehicles will be needed to transport goods from these terminals to other parts of the city.

The Dhulagarh Truck Terminal would ease traffic flow by as much as 6,000 trucks a day. Spread over 100 acres, this terminal was set up with an investment of Rs 40 crore and is capable of handling 6,000 trucks per day.

However, Bhattacharjee added that the Budge Budge terminal would be much smaller though the rest would be of the same size as Dhulagarh.

He also said the government was planning to set up a township in Howrah in order to solve residential problems of the area.

The chief minister said the map and other details of the new township "" to be called West Township "" was nearly complete.

He said the government was also planning to erect a system that would carry passenger on elevated levels above existing roads in the city in order to reduce pressure from the roads which accounts for only six per cent of the city's total area.

"We have asked companies from Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, and Switzerland to make presentations and tenders for the project is likely to be invited soon," he added.

He also said that existing buses and trams were not being able to handle the volume of passenger the city faces every day, hence a mass rapid transit system that would ply over a different level on existing roads would help in reducing the pressure to a great extent.