A boy sits in one of the traffic police kiosks at Philips crossing on CIT Road while another kiosk a few metres away is empty.

There are one too many traffic police kiosks on Calcutta roads. At some points in south Calcutta, there are three at a single spot — one on the middle of the road, the other at the side and a third on the sidewalk — with not a single traffic policeman inside. With huge advertising banners or glow signs, these are veritable eyesores with little use.

In the short 1.6km stretch of CIT Road from Suhrawardy Avenue to Philips crossing in south Calcutta, 10 such kiosks were spotted. They are on Suhrawardy Avenue in front of Lady Brabourne College, at the crossing of Darga Road, on Suresh Sarkar Road in front of Benshull Haat, opposite Padmapukur Park and on Lalmohan Bhattacharya Road at Philips crossing.

Suhrawardy Avenue near Park Circus Maidan and Lady Brabourne College is a busy thoroughfare. The area in the morning peak hours faces heavy traffic because of local schools and colleges. However, the police kiosk on Suhrawardy Avenue remains vacant. “I am a student of Lady Brabourne College and have never seen a traffic policeman inside that kiosk. I don’t know of what use it is,” said Sunita Saha, a first-year student.

On Darga Road, in front of Calcutta National Medical College, there is a concrete structure, built for the traffic police, encroaching on the pavement. The footpath here is narrow and because of the structure there is hardly any room for pedestrians. It is now being used as a garbage dump.

A concrete structure encroaches on the footpath in front of Calcutta National Medical College

There is another wooden kiosk on the road at the same spot that has never been used by a traffic cop.

Citizenspeak: “I regularly travel through this stretch. Its funny to see a policeman managing the traffic standing on the pavement instead of using either of the kiosks,” said Amrinder Kaur, a student of Class XI of M.B. Girls’ School.

“The pavement on Darga Road is narrow, at best two people can walk side by side. Because of the concrete kiosk in front of Metropolitan Library, the pavement is virtually blocked. I don’t know how the lawkeepers of the city can allow this and in whose interest?” asked Hiren Paul, a senior citizen.

Mohammad Sahnawaz, a resident of Padmapukur Park area, said: “When the kiosk came up we thought street accidents would go down. But now we know that it was constructed not for traffic management but for billboards.”

The traffic kiosks have turned out to be popular sites for outdoor advertising. In the name of traffic management, these structures have turned out to be lucrative spots for agencies to put up billboards in the middle of busy roads.

Their modus operandi is simple. An outdoor agency selects some prime spots, then they approach the police top brass with the proposal of installing traffic kiosks on those spots. The proposals are then sent to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) through the police. Finally, one day a top cop inaugurates the kiosks with much fanfare. Each of them is manned by a traffic cop for some time and billboards are placed on the roof. Then after five or six months, one finds billboards glowing on top of empty kiosks.

There seems to be an unholy nexus between the traffic police and a section of the advertising business. Though the police have no right over city roads as CMC is the owner, but the latter prefers to be a silent spectator.

Coptalk

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Dilip Banerjee, said, “I have no knowledge of this. If there is any written complaint, we could investigate.”

CMCspeak

Chief town planner Dipankar Sinha said, “All the traffic kiosks and bus shelters in the city are eyesores . They have come up in the interest of advertising agencies and not for the benefit of citizens.”

Talat Salahuddin