Monsoon: KMC warns occupants of dilapidated buildings against collapse

With the onset of rainfall, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has begun warning occupants of dilapidated buildings to get the structures repaired before monsoon sets in or the civic body will demolish structures which are in a precarious condition.

Every year, dilapidated buildings in the city collapse during heavy rainfall. In some cases, occupants suffer grievous injuries and die after getting buried under the debris. This year, the civic body has started their awareness campaigns and has compiled a list of such structures which may collapse after a bout of heavy showers. Most of such buildings are in the central and northern part of the city.

According to the civic body’s record there are about 2500 dangerous buildings in the city out of which the condition of more than 250 buildings are worrisome. The KMC building department is most concerned with these set of buildings that are in a critical condition. Some of these are in Lenin Sarani, SN Banerjee Road, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Burrabazar, Chitpore, Bhowanipore etc.

However, since the civic body will not be able to demolish such large number of buildings, it is presently focussing on ones that pose the highest and immediate risk. Two such buildings are located near Dharmatala at 9 and 10 Jawahrlal Nehru Road. The KMC is learnt to have already served notices to the occupants for vacating the properties but soon after the tenants moved court. Hence, presently the hands of the KMC are tied. There are similar cases throughout the city where the occupants are refusing to move out and some are instead moving the court where the matter immediately becomes sub-judice forcing the KMC to wait for a final order.

To assure the occupants that they will have the right to move back once the building is razed down and reconstructed, the state government introduced the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022 that now allows the civic body to issue a ‘certificate of occupancy’ to inhabitants of dilapidated properties in the city who may now either shift elsewhere temporarily during the reconstruction work of the building, or can erect a temporary structure within the premises for rehabilitation purposes before development work begins. If the occupiers of the dilapidated building shift somewhere else to facilitate the development work process, they will be provided the certificate of occupancy under supervision of the Corporation.

Sources said that if the tenants continue to refuse to vacate the buildings for demolition purposes then KMC will take the help of police to carry out the demolition work.