Traffic Chaos Near Kolkata’s TCS Exam Centre Leaves Nursing Aspirants Stranded

What should have been a decisive exam day turned into an anxious race against time for hundreds of nursing aspirants in Kolkata, as massive traffic snarls paralysed roads around the TCS Gitobitan exam centre in Salt Lake Sector V. From early morning, key stretches near JK Shah Crossing and adjoining IT corridors resembled parking lots, with vehicles barely moving for over an hour.

The centre, a regular venue for high-stakes competitive exams such as AIIMS NORCET, JEMScN M.Sc. Nursing entrance, and other recruitment tests, witnessed an overwhelming influx of candidates. Despite traffic advisories asking students to arrive well in advance, congestion persisted, aggravated by diversions on VIP Road and peak office-hour rush in Sector V.

For many aspirants, the delay proved costly. Social media platforms were flooded with posts from distressed candidates, some of whom missed entry deadlines by minutes. “We left home hours early, but the jam near TCS ruined everything,” one nursing aspirant wrote, echoing the frustration of many others who watched their career-defining opportunity slip away while stuck in traffic.

This happens at a time when West Bengal’s Health Department, together with TCS, is working hard to recruit more than 5,000 nurses due to the shortage of healthcare staff. But incidents such as the large-scale logistics failure at Gitobitan, which was meant to handle large exam centers, continue to raise serious concerns about how such incidents keep happening, especially since it has happened before, as evidenced by the past incidents related to UGC-NET.

Further complicating this scenario is the ever-increasing focus on nursing education in the state. Not long ago, the Calcutta High Court asked for an audit of all nursing colleges under the West Bengal Nursing Council within a six-month deadline and filed FIRs against all colleges operating illegally. There is yet another case in which students from a shut-down nursing college in Amtala were compensated after they were duped of huge fees.

“While the authorities have promised better advisories for the next set of exams, there are demands for corrective measures to be put in place to ensure that ‘ambition is not wrecked by unnecessary chaos on the roadside,’” according to a report.