‘State to issue circular of requisites for building lifting work in municipal areas’

Kolkata: Urban Development and Municipal Affairs (UD&MA) minister, Firhad Hakim on Friday said his department will soon issue a circular to all municipal bodies in the state laying down mandatory measures which need fulfilling for executing lifting work of tilted buildings.

Hakim, who is also the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), said that the civic body will try to arrange for a temporary shelter for the flat owners once the tilted building in Vidyasagar Colony is razed to ground.

Addressing the press, Hakim said that he has directed the principal secretary of the UD&MA department to issue a circular in the next few days. This will contain certain mandatory steps that ought to be followed when carrying out lifting work of buildings in municipal areas of the state. Some of the requisites are a soil test report, assessment of structural stability of the building by a structural engineer, and the credentials of the company appointed to execute such a work. Only if these criterions are met, the municipal body concerned shall give permission for then lifting work.

The Mayor said he is aware that there are few buildings in the city which have tilted to one side. He said one such is in Alipore area but this is mostly due to lack of piling work at the time of construction and nothing serious. Hakim said the building in Vidyasagar Colony didn’t even develop a crack but it was the faulty lifting work which paved the way

for the disaster.

He further said once the Vidyasagar Colony structure is razed to ground, the KMC will speak to the flat owners for building them a temporary shelter on that land. He said even though FIRs were also lodged against them they all have proper deed for their res[pective portions and must not suffer for the deliberate fault of the promoter.

Hakim said in near future after checking the legality of the land if it is seen there is no hurdle then the civic body, if the flat owners are willing, can build them a house under

‘Banglar Bari’ scheme.