MillenniumPost
Bengal

KMRCL begins negotiating with Bowbazar residents to resolve NOC impasse

Kolkata: The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) has started negotiations with the residents who are reluctant to sign No Objection Certificates for demolishing their buildings, which have been damaged due to the tunnel boring work of the East-West Metro project.

"We have started talking with the residents," said KMRCL chief engineer (civil) Biswanath Dewanjee.

On Thursday, the Technical Committee set up by KMRCL to identify the status of the affected buildings due to tunnel boring at Bowbazar has submitted the first report.

The committee has studied 70 buildings and decided upon 27 buildings to be demolished (including already collapsed ones) and considered another 27 buildings to have been unaffected due to the mishap.

The residents and shop owners at Bowbazar area have been hesitating to sign No Objection Certificates for demolishing their damaged buildings.

"We are in a dilemma. Our demand is that the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) should give us in written the duration after which they would hand over the houses," said Vijay Suryavanshi, resident of 12, Syakra Para Lane who also runs Vijay Assay Centre Private Limited.

Meanwhile, a section of the residents claimed that they are not getting proper facilities in the hotels they have been shifted to, since the mishap. The KMRCL has subsequently formed two teams and the members visit the hotels to take stock of the residents every day.

KMRCL, the executing agency of the East-West Metro project, has already informed the core committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De about the development.

A total of approximately 74 buildings have suffered damages or developed cracks in the aftermath of the incident. More than 600 residents living at Durga Pithuri Lane, Syakra Para Lane and Gour De Lane have been evacuated and shifted to various hotels around the city by the KMRCL.

It might be mentioned that even state Planning and Statistics minister Tapas Roy had to vacate his house situated at 105 B B Ganguly Street.

According to the senior civic officials, the worst affected buildings are more than 100 years old and have not been repaired for the past 50 years or more. A five-member Building Assessment Committee (BAC) had been formed to check the condition of the buildings.

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