KMC forms 6-member committee to identify dilapidated tenanted buildings

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has for the first time in its history set up a six-member committee to identify old dilapidated buildings that are tenanted and will hand them over to private builders if the owners refuse to repair them.

The committee will be headed by the joint municipal commissioner. The other members are director general town and planning, director general building I and II, chief municipal law officer and two senior officials from KMC's finance and audit departments. The committee will start functioning from July 1.

The state Urban Development department had placed a Bill in this regard in the Assembly which was passed unanimously. The step has been taken as old condemned buildings pose a serious threat to lives and properties and to address the formidable problems, proper planning is required. The KMC will issue notices to the owners who have failed to maintain the building under Section 412 A of the KMC Act. If the owner refuses to repair, then KMC will engage a consultant and the borough executive engineer along with a senior police officer and the consultant will visit the spot. The KMC will then request the civil engineering department of institutions like Jadavpur University and Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) to test the condition of buildings. If they declare a building as condemned, then the consultant will prepare a detailed project report which contains rehabilitation plans for the tenants. The KMC will then float a tender to get a promoter after getting the DPR ratified by the six-member committee. The builder will give 2 percent of the cost of the project to the civic authorities as cover to realise its initial expenditure. It will then give either space or money to the owner and the tenants will get space.

Senior civic officials said this is for the first time when a concrete step has been taken to address the problem of old condemned buildings. There are over 2,000 insecure buildings in the city. The civic authorities have issued notices to the owners and the occupiers but the occupiers have refused to vacate them though KMC has put up boards on these structures.

The KMC will identity the old structures where the owners could not be traced. There are many such buildings particularly in North and South Kolkata along the river Hooghly. In such buildings, KMC will try to find out the owner and then will sit with the tenants to go ahead with the project.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee who is very hopeful about the scheme said: "Such a step should have been taken earlier. Never in the past, rehabilitation of tenants was properly done."