KMRCL to start pulling down 5 badly affected buildings today
Kolkata: Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL) will start work for pulling down five buildings at Durga Pithuri Lane in Bowbazar, which have been badly damaged due to the tunneling work of East West Metro from Monday. These buildings are beyond repair and are posing a serious threat to the buildings which are located adjacent to them.
"We have got the necessary nod of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation as well as the house owners for the demolition of the buildings after we submitted the soil stability certificate. We are accordingly making arrangements for the same," said a senior official of KMRCL, the executing agency of the East West Metro project.
It may be mentioned that KMRCL, with assistance from officials of the building department of KMC and Kolkata Police has already started removing debris from the damaged buildings at Syakra Para Lane and Durga Pithuri Lane from Saturday and will continue to do so on Monday.
A JCV machine was found positioned on BB Ganguly Street at the entrance of Durga Pithuri Lane, which will be used for demolition. The demolition work will also clear the congestion in the lanes and will speed up the process of debris clearance.
The KMRCL engineers with help from two foreign experts have been able to bring down the degree of subsidence in the earth underneath the damaged buildings through grouting and pumping of water into the earth from within the tunnel. They are hopeful that the earth underneath can be settled within a day or two.
"We have already handed over cheques of Rs 5 lakh to 19 beneficiaries. Compilation of the rest of the beneficiaries after necessary verification is going on. We will transfer the amount to the accounts of the beneficiaries directly from Monday, as per the list that will be given to us by the state administration," said A K Nandy, general manager (Administration), KMRCL.
The residents of Durga Pithuri Lane were allowed to take their belongings on Sunday, with the demolition drive scheduled on Monday. "We have vacated our residence on September 1 and are staying in Hotel Himalaya at Mechua. We were allowed 45 minutes and have brought our valuable ornaments, bank documents and educational documents from our building which has developed cracks only. The building just adjacent to ours has tilted slightly and so we were asked to vacate," said Prabir Kumar Nandy, who was found taking out his belongings along with his family members on Sunday afternoon.
