Soon, 6 night shelters in congested urban areas adjoining Kolkata

Kolkata: In a bid to provide safe shelters to the homeless and check the spread of COVID-19, the Mamata Banerjee government has now taken a move to set up night shelters at congested urban areas in districts adjoining Kolkata.

Work to construct six shelters will start soon in Howrah's Liluah and Uluberia, Bhadreswar, Serampore, Chinsurah and Champdani in Hooghly district.

Each of these will be a three-storeyed building having a capacity to provide shelter to 50 people at a time.

Cost of developing each of these shelters will vary from Rs 1.38 crore to Rs 1.78 crore. The state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has taken up the project following the directions from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

After Kolkata, the presence of a maximum number of homeless is reported from congested urban areas in its adjacent districts like Howrah. The figure is also high in some of the municipal areas, mainly those close to the railway stations, in Hooghly.

At present, there are around 40 night shelters in Kolkata. Both the state government and the KMC have set up 35 and five of these shelters respectively. Construction of five more is on the anvil in the city.

"Besides Kolkata, construction of similar infrastructure for the homeless in the urban areas of adjoining districts will take place as well," said a senior state government official adding that it will help local authorities with more space in lodging them in their respective areas.

The state government has made elaborate arrangements in providing shelters to the homeless soon after the pandemic outbreak. They were taken to night shelters in Kolkata and other parts of the state. While carrying out this exercise of providing shelter, the state government officials have earmarked the areas where setting up of more such infrastructure is needed. Accordingly, the state government has prepared a detailed plan of action based on which the night shelters are being constructed.

At the same time, the Supreme Court has also directed all states to set up at least one such shelter for every one lakh population. The official added that all steps to construct the shelters have already been taken and the work is expected to start soon and will be carried out on war footing.