Slow start to new year as revellers, rallies choke Kolkata streets

KOLKATA: The police did not seem to have learnt any lesson from the road chaos on Christmas Day as traffic on New Year's Day — from the southern end to central to EM Bypass and New Town — virtually came to a grinding halt since late morning.
The cops, however, could not be blamed entirely for the excruciatingly long queues of vehicles choking the city as they had to deal with three-pronged surge on the road: lakhs of revellers visiting popular hangouts, such as Alipore Zoo, Victoria Memorial and Maidan, causing a jam till Rashbehari Avenue, thousands of Trinamool workers participating in multiple rallies to celebrate their party's foundation day and lastly , a huge procession brought out by a Sikh community to celebrate the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh between 10.30am and 2pm.The Sikh procession started from the Rashbehari crossing till MG Road, criss-crossing through CR Avenue, SP Mukherjee Road, Hazra crossing, Chowringhee Road, Exide Crossing, Park Street Crossing and Esplanade. A senior officer admitted they were prepared to tackle the rush of revellers, but had not quite considered the two processions.
Grappling with the sea of people, out on the streets to make the most of January 1 that also coincided with a Sunday , the police said the area in front of Alipore Zoo was the worst hit, with cars crawling at a snail's pace.“People were crossing the road, completely ignoring the traffic signals. Moreover, the queue at the zoo ticket counters spilled onto the main road. We had a tough time getting the crowd off the road,“ said a sergeant posted nearby. By 1.30pm, the cascading effect could be felt till as far as Rasbehari Avenue and Judges Court Road, more than 3 km away . With motorists and bikers looking to take the narrow lanes to bypass the snarls on Asutosh Mukherjee Road, the alleys also got choked in no time.
Even as the cops struggled to contain the crowd, thousands of Trinamool workers--on foot, bike and autos--hit the street.Even as smaller party processions dotted the city , this one starting off from Hazra More. It meandered through Hazra Road, Kalighat Bridge, Judges Court Road, Mominpore crossing, DH Road and CGR Road crossing to terminate at Kidderpore Bridge, adding to the snarls. The Guru Gobind Singh procession only added to the woes.
At 2.20pm, Kolkata Police's Facebook page had a post from a techie, Sandipan Bhattacharyya: “Have been between Bhowanipore and Exide crossing for the last1.5 hrs Sir. Almost no movement of traffic on New Year's day . Request your urgent intervention Sir and possibly de-touring the traffic to help the public.“ The post did not get any reply till late on Sunday.
The chaos lasted till evening. On his way home to the Airport area from Salt Lake, Satyajit Sengupta crossed the box bridge near Technopolis at 5.30pm.At 7.49pm, he was still near Akankha crossing, barely 3.5km away . He took one-and-ahalf hours to cover 1.5km from near Home Town to Eco Park Gate 2. “The streets were swarming with people, sauntering aimlessly and taking selfies in the middle of the road,“ he said.