Bowbazar residents home-bound after assurance from KMRCL

Kolkata: Residents of Bowbazar area continue to return home from hotels, after getting assurance from Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) of no further threat of house collapse in the area due to the construction work of East-West Metro.

"We shifted to our house today (October 25, 2019). We entered our house after receiving a 'statutory notice' from KRMCL. There are five families in our building. All the families have shifted to their own homes along with us," said Rimpa Das, a resident of 94, B B Ganguly Street.

The statutory notice issued by the KMRCL pointed out that four buildings in the area are now fit for re-occupation.

According to the sources, residents of 94, B B Ganguly Street, 4A, Gour De Lane, 4B, Gour De Lane and 4C, Gour De Lane were shifted from hotels to their homes.

The statutory notice also mentioned that the site engineers will inspect the premises immediately on return and identify any minor cracks that may have appeared due to tunnel boring work of East-West Metro.

While the KMRCL had shortlisted 14 houses that are safe and said that residents could return to their homes, a few residents had earlier returned to hotels claiming fresh cracks in their buildings, along with no water supply and electricity. Several houses at Durga Pithuri Lane and Syakra Para Lane had partially or wholly collapsed, while cracks had developed in houses at Gour De Lane.

While the KMRCL had formed a team to examine 70 buildings, it had submitted a report on 54 houses after the buildings in the area had developed structural damage following subsidence on August 31. Out of these 54 houses, 27 needed to be demolished.

It may be mentioned that KMRCL is executing construction of the 16.6 km long East-West Metro corridor, which will connect Salt Lake Sector V with Howrah Maidan.