Overhaul of Jadubabur Bazar a challenge for KMC

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is learnt to have hit a wall in its quest to carry out an overhaul of the dilapidated Jadubabur Bazaar building, in Bhowanipore, on the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

In a recent administrative meeting, Banerjee expressed concerns about the several dilapidated buildings in the city, including market buildings. She said such structures remain in a precarious position and pose a risk of collapse. The CM warned that immediate action must be taken by the civic body to avoid a disaster which could claim the lives of buyers at the market. She asked the civic body to speak to the owners of such buildings for immediate repair work. Banerjee had in particular mentioned Jadubabur Bazar in Bhowanipore which is “ill-maintained and poses a risk of collapse”.

The KMC had been surveying for such dilapidated structures which pose an immediate risk of collapse. Among these, Jadubabur Bazar is one such structure that apparently lies ill-maintained and also poses a fire hazard due to its mesh of wires that has enveloped the building. The civic body had been talking to some of the owners of the building for revamp but without success. This has led the civic body to contemplate if it should acquire the property but that too had run into a hurdle, mostly because of having to first trace all the owners and then convince them for a handover.

It has now reportedly come to light that the civic body has again initiated a dialogue with the owners but hasn’t been able to trace several of them as the building, it is learnt, has more than 50 owners. However, the civic body has now decided to carry out initial repair works of the building to prevent any untoward incident.

Last year, a portion of a private market building in Bowbazar had collapsed. Mayor Firhad Hakim had said: “KMC will have to come up with a policy to ensure maintenance of these buildings. We will draw up the policy and send it to the state government for approval. Further, in case we find any damaged and ill-maintained ‘gari barandas’ (balconies) in these old buildings, we will demolish them.”