No water and electricity at Bowbazar residents' homes

Kolkata: Residents of Bowbazar, who returned home from hotels, are in a fix as threat of house collapse continues in the area due to East-West Metro construction work. A few of them had also returned to hotels claiming fresh cracks on their premises, no water supply and electricity on Wednesday.

"Around 11.45 pm on Tuesday (September 24, 2019), we were told that we have to vacate the hotel on Wednesday morning (September 25, 2019). When we came to our house in Gour De Lane we found big crack, no electricity and water connection. We again shifted to Jai Shree Hotel," said Bishwanath Baroi, resident of 3 Gour De Lane.

Before entering their homes, the residents conducted a meeting at control room formed by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL), Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Kolkata Police at Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration.

For any type of assistance, the residents can direct go to the control room or call on 9432610472.

"We shifted to our house in the afternoon today. The cracks in our house have increased," said Manashi Maiti, resident of 6 Gour De Lane.

The KMRCL, the implementing agency of East West Metro project, refuted the claims made by the residents.

"A five-member Building Assessment Committee (BAC) has been formed to check the conditions of the buildings. After getting the clearance from the BAC, we asked 27 people to shift to their houses from the hotels. Residents of four houses in Gour De Lane and one in B B Ganguly Street were shifted to their houses," said A K Nandy, general manager (Administration), KMRCL.

KMRCL had constituted a team headed by Nitin Som, emeritus professor of Jadavpur University's civil engineering department, for carrying out health study of the buildings in Bowbazar that have suffered heavy damages due to the tunnel boring work for the East-West Metro project.

Nandy said that there is no threat of any house collapse. He reiterated that KMRL had already sent Rs five lakh compensation into the bank account of 107 beneficiaries. Today, KMRCL had transferred the money through RTGS to 29 more people.

While several houses at Durga Pithuri Lane and Syakra Para Lane have partially or wholly collapsed, an expert team has submitted its first report on the condition of the buildings in Bowbazar area recently.

The report, submitted by the expert team to KMRCL, identified 27 buildings that were beyond repairs and needed to be razed.

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