Several motorists have had accidents on the flyover.
Mother Nature, Mother Earth, Mother India and now, a flyover called Ma. Bollywood might have loved it. But few Kolkatans do.
The new flyover at the heart of the city has already seen several accidents. There have been reports of motorcylists racing down the flyover and crashing into the dividers.
"No mother would hurt her children," said Asif Ansari, a Kolkata resident who was weaving through traffic under the flyover. "The name should be changed. Ma should not be used."
"A flyover called Ma is an insult. A mother doesn't harm anyone, doesn't create problems," agreed Mohammed Fahim, a BPO worker who lives next to the flyover at Park Circus. His mother had hurt herself after falling into a hole dug during the construction of the flyover.
The name of the flyover had caused quite a bit of speculation. No name was decided even on last Friday, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had snipped the ribbon and breezed off. "May be it will called the Paroma flyover," Urban Affairs minister Firhad Hakim had said.
The surprise came today - with the morning newspaper. Huge ads announced that the flyover will be called "Ma".
Many got a whiff of politics.
"If the next couple of flyovers are named 'mati' and 'manush' it will become a joke," laughed Md Fahim. After all, everyone knows the Chief Minister's favourite slogan: Ma Mati Manush.
"Do our politicians leave any stone unturned to gain political mileage? She inaugurated this flyover. Obviously, she will try to extract political mileage from it. Why Ma?" said his neighbor Shashant Daswani.