West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said new parking spaces would be created in the hills in the north, especially Darjeeling and Kalimpong, to solve traffic woes in these towns. Adhikari was speaking to reporters after inaugurating a newly built traffic control room at the West Bengal Traffic Police headquarters in ''Arakhya Bhavan'' in Salt Lake adjoining Kolkata.

"I am worried about the traffic situation in the hills. In Darjeeling and Kalimpong, I have seen that around 60 per cent of the main roads have been turned into parking areas. This arrangement might have been made due to a lack of parking areas in the hills, and developing such facilities there is not as easy as compared to the plains," the CM said.

"We have to develop parking areas using the expertise of the Centre''s border road construction agencies. The SPs of the Kalimpong and Darjeeling districts have been directed to act quickly. We have also asked the administration to enhance parking areas in the hills," he said. On traffic management in the state, he said the overall situation is normal, but there is some congestion in the hills.

"The state government will provide necessary land and adequate funds to build new parking areas in the hills," the chief minister said. He said the new live traffic control room would enable the police to monitor important state and national highways as well as traffic movement in major cities, including Kolkata and Siliguri.

He said the system would also help monitor stretches that frequently witness congestion, including Palsit (Purba Bardhaman), Dankuni (Hooghly), Farakka (Murshidabad), Kaliachak (Malda), Dalkhola and Islampur (Uttar Dinajpur) along major highways. "We will also be able to ascertain whether the traffic congestion is natural or artificially manufactured with some hidden agenda," the CM added.

"Traffic movement along the highways remains normal during the day and suddenly congestion starts at 9 pm and continues till midnight or early morning. I have experienced it myself," he said. Adhikari said a toll-free number had been introduced for people to report traffic congestion and violations directly to the police.

"We will soon come up with a WhatsApp number as well. If you see any artificial traffic congestion or violation, you can directly call the toll free number -- 18003458922 -- and inform the authorities. Immediate action will be taken," he said.

He said the state was also working to improve traffic infrastructure, including establishing kiosks, CCTV cameras and barricades.Adhikari said he inspected several traffic check-posts and identified areas where greater vigilance and additional management measures were required.

"I monitored the check-posts at Farakka, Palsit, Dankuni and Dhulagarh (from the control room). They are more or less functioning properly," he said. "Automatic traffic signaling systems must be installed in areas that don''t have adequate manpower. I have brought these under our action plan," he said.

Adhikari said the condition of several roads has deteriorated due to heavy rain since June 2 and that the government was trying to complete repairs before Durga Puja. He said budgetary allocation of Rs 313 crore has been made for the Gorkhaland Territorial Authority (GTA).

"The previous government had carried out Rs 6 crore-worth of work in Darjeeling in 2025-26. In the last four months, our administration has allocated Rs 249 crore from the state Disaster Management Fund for over 465 schemes in the hills," Adhikari said.

On traffic management in the plains, Adhikari said there were congestions mainly between Ankurhati and Dhulagarh and at Santragachi, all in Howrah district, due to problems on service roads and national highways, and repair work was underway. The CM also alleged that the previous government had neglected several aspects of the police and traffic administration.

"The previous government had forced the police to collect money (from vehicles on highways) and send it to them. The lower-ranked police personnel did not get DA," he said. "All departments, including traffic, intelligence and coastal police, were neglected under the previous government. The police cannot be blamed as they were only carrying out orders from the top. We have stopped all these and there would not be any traffic congestion from now on," Adhikari said.

(Note: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by The Daily Jagran and has been published through a syndicated feed. Source - PTI)