Houses see cracks again as tunnel boring resumes in Bowbazar
Kolkata: Residents of Chaitanya Sen Lane are in a fix after fresh cracks developed inside their houses as soon as underground tunneling work for East-West Metro resumed after five months in the Bowbazar area.
Several buildings at Durga Pithuri Lane, Syakra Para Lane, Madan Dutta Lane and Gour Dey Lane had collapsed earlier, while cracks developed in a number of them again due to the ongoing tunnel boring work undertaken by the authorities of East-West Metro in Bowbazar area last week.
"Only residents of six premises at Chaitanya Sen Lane were shifted to hotels by KMRCL. We have not been given any evacuation notice by the KMRCL. Fresh cracks have developed on the walls last week. It is continuously expanding," said Kajal Basak, a resident of 10/1 A, Chaitanya Sen Lane.
Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL), the executing agency of the East-West Metro project, had started the tunnel boring work again on February 18. The tunnel-boring work was earlier put on hold after a machine hit an aquifer on August 31, 2019 at Bowbazar area that led to severe ground subsidence and collapse of nearby buildings. The Calcutta High Court had allowed the tunnel-boring work for the East-West corridor to resume on February 11.
"We don't know what our future is. The condition of our house is worsening. The threat of the house collapsing is looming large," said S Dutta, a Homeopathy doctor and resident of 10 Chaitanya Sen Lane.
As a safety measure, the KMRCL has issued statutory notices to residents of six premises in the BowBazar area, to avoid any untoward incident before starting the tunnel boring work.
"The residents of 13, Chaitanya Sen Lane, who were shifted to a hotel last week, were supposed to return home on Thursday (February 27). However, they will return on March 3 because KMRCL is still carrying out the tunnel boring work," said Partha Gupta, a resident of 10/1 A Chaitanya Sen Lane.
According to KMRCL sources, checks for cracks in buildings on the tunnel route of East-West Metro between Bowbazar and Sealdah and soil subsidence are being carried out every six hours. The residents need not worry about their houses collapsing, they stated.