KOLKATA: As the city sleeps, a band of men are working overnight on some rickety and undulating roads in south Kolkata to make sure the residents of Behala, who have been facing commute woes ever since the collapse of Majerhat bridge on September 4, can get back on their wheels.Over the last couple of days, road construction labourers of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the public works department are working overtime — especially after midnight — to fix some of the lesser-known roads that have so far only been used by trucks to make them fit for faster vehicular movement in absence of Majerhat bridge.A team of around 150 labourers from Barrackpore in north, Entally in central and Baruipur in south — spread across three groups —has been working on Old Goragachha Road, Hobcon Road, Taratala Road and Transport Depot Road to fix the craters, uneven terrains and lay a fresh coat of bitumen for smooth commute that the residents of Behala are striving for since the collapse of the bridge.“We have been given strict instructions to take our breaks in turns, to not to leave the site ever, to work all night during lesser traffic and wrap up the repair by this Sunday,” said Sambhu Kahar, a labourer leading a team of workers from Barrackpore, now working at Transport Depot Road. Kahar, who has 15 years of road construction experience, said he couldn’t remember the last time he had worked on such stiff schedules.“It’s a challenge for us too. But even our superiors, who are staying by our side, have asked us to focus only on these ravaged mud tracks and turn them motorable as early as possible,” said Ashima Bibi, a resident of Kakinara who has been deployed at the Goragachha Road-Transport Depot road intersection.As per the tweaked plan, during daytime, the labourers are breaking bricks and filling up the craters — as large as a baby pool at places with the brickfills and are letting traffic plying on them to level the stretch. At night, the cops are blocking traffic on parts of the roads, allowing the workers to construct a fresh road by pouring bitumen mixture on the brick-filled roads and run road rollers over the same.“We have only worked on such deadlines for a day or two before the start of the Pujas. We are sleeping inside makeshift tents or hutments near the site and have been asked to go home only after the work is over,” said Tahir Iqbal, while overseeing a road levelling and expansion work on Taratala Road.Since the fall of the bridge on September 4, the 10.5 lakh odd residents of Behala have been the worst hit. They have been forced to use alternative roads like Hyde Road, which is mostly used by trucks and is full of craters, or the Durgapur Bridge-Chetla connector that’s also experiencing snarls because of the increase in vehicular pressure.As a result, the state was forced to look for new roads. During discussions, the option of Remount Road-Old Goragachha Road-Hobcon Road-Transport Depot Road-Goragachha Road was explored as the fastest road for north-south movement. However, since a major portion of the road was nothing more than a cesspool and mud track, the authorities went for full-scale overnight repairs to get the road up and running.“We have been using the latest machines like paver finishers that can put the bitumen mixture on the road and level the mixture at the same time over a large area without the need of extra labourers. Considering the condition in which we had received the road, which looked like a pond, we have been able to finish the work in record time, working throughout the day and night over the past few days,” said a senior KMC engineer as the authorities opened the Old Goragachha Road to traffic on Friday.

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