KMC opens 5-member thika cell

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has opened a five-member 'thika cell' to assist thika tenants and sub-tenants to set up buildings on thika land, said Mayor Firhad Hakim on Wednesday.

He said the cell will function as a single window. The thika tenants will submit all the documents, which the KMC officials will send for verification to the office of the thika controller. Meanwhile, if a building plan is submitted, KMC will process it and then if the papers are found to be genuine, the plan will be cleared.

It has been decided that if the thika tenants or sub-tenants fail to construct the new structure, the state government would help them to have their own houses under Banglar Bari Yojana.

Each floor would measure around 385 sq ft. In Kolkata, the total amount of thika land is around 2,000 acres, while in Howrah the figure remains nearly 517 acres.

There is thika tenancy land in areas such as Burrabazar, Sovabazar, Chetla and even Kalighat area to name a few.

Hakim said there are 92,000 thika premises in the city, out of which 22,000 are registered. The number of assessees will be 4,500.