Kolkata: A substantial portion of the ground floor of a four-storey building in the Vidyasagar Colony, Baghajatin, collapsed on Tuesday, causing the entire building to tilt.
Residents said some people living in the building had returned a few days ago. According to reports, the police said that there was no one inside the building at the time of the incident. The building has tilted towards its left, hanging over another single storied residence.
Engineers from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) Building department reached the spot along with personnel from disaster management. Locals alleged that substandard materials were used in the construction while the building was an illegal construction.
The MLA of Jadavpur Constituency Debabrata Majumder, who is also a Member-Mayor-In-Council (MMIC) in KMC, told the media that the building is 10 to 12 years old. The building had previously developed a slant. The owner was taking help of a Haryana-based agency for lifting the building but permission for the same was not taken.
Local councillor Mitali Banerjee is learnt to have told the media that apartments up to three-storeyed are allowed in this area. Even for that, permission is required. “This building will be demolished and I want the cops to arrest the promoter,” Banerjee told the media. Sources in KMC’s Building department said that the sanction plan for the building will be checked for any deviation. Further, since the building was not even an old dilapidated one, chances are that a deviation from the construction plan may have led to faulty engineering causing the building to tilt.
Last year, the collapse of an under-construction building at Garden Reach’s Azhar Mollah Bagan area killed 13 persons. The civic body had detected several other such illegal constructions in the area.