Building on Shibtala Lane tilts, families evacuated

Kolkata: The residents of the apartment located at 12/11, Shibtala Lane under Karaya police station are now in a crisis situation as they have being directed to vacate the building after it was found to be precariously tilting on the adjacent building at 12/12, Shibtala Lane on Wednesday night.

The 23 odd families living in the flat are extremely worried about having lost the roof on their head."It was 7.30 pm at night when suddenly a team from Karaya police station along with officials from disaster management came and directed all of us to vacate the building with our belongings. We spent Wednesday night at a neighbouring house. But it cannot be a long term solution. The building has been tilting gradually but there are no cracks inside. We have never felt unsafe. But now we are at a loss not knowing where to go," said Kausar Khan, who has been living on the ground floor of G+4 apartment since it was set up nine years ago.

The residents have been assured of alternative arrangements when they vacated the building. "Nothing has happened yet. We will wait till Friday and meet the Mayor," Renu Begum, one of the residents of the apartment said.

Another resident said the building has been in the same condition for the last four days after gradually tilting on one side and it was somebody in the locality who informed the administration.

Local councillor Nibedita Sharma said: "I have informed Mayor Sovan Chatterjee. Municipal Commissioner Khalil Ahmed along with a team from the Building department visited the spot but have not yet given any feedback. I have spoken to people of the neigbourhood and they have agreed to offer temporary shelters for these families."

The residents of 12/12 Shibtala Lane were also asked to vacate their apartment on Thursday morning with engineers from Kolkata Municipal Corporation's building department doing necessary examination of the building. A police picket has been posted in the area. The gap between the two buildings — 12/11 and 12/12 — is supposed to be six feet but the top floor of one of the buildings has tilted on another, leaving no gap.

"We will have to examine the health of the tilted building and then decide on the next course of action," an official in KMC's Building department said.

Gupinath Bhandari, associate professor of Civil Engineering department of Jadavpur University said a building has to have two settlements — one is the immediate settlement which is required immediately after its construction and the second is the long-term settlement as it stands with each passing year. "Apparently, for this building there has been non-uniformity in the long term settlement for some unknown reason. It is the job of the experts to find out this reason," he said.