KOLKATA: Contractor ITD ITD-Cem has now started shifting Bowbazar residents displaced in the May 11 subsidence, out of their hotels. Their new addresses will be the various flats rented by ITD until the fate of their damaged homes are decided.
"We have been given a 2BHK flat at Phoolbagan. The Metro contractors have not specified the duration of our stay," rued Sidharth Jaiswal, resident of 19, Durga Pithuri Lane. His neighbour Sandeep Shaw, who is due to shift on Wednesday, said, "I wanted a place near my home. But ITD is taking us to a flat in Beliaghata. Tomorrow we are going back to Durga Pithuri Lane to pick up furniture and other belongings."
Those like Motilal Shaw have found a place in the vicinity. "I was lucky that this house at Siddheshwar Chandra Lane near Muchipara was available," he said. Of the 154 displaced residents, ITD has so far shifted 80, in 12 flats. The rest will be shifted by the month-end, officials said.
A soil excavation inside the East-West Metro shaft led to water ingress and subsidence on May 11, following which several houses around Bowbazar's Durga Pithuri Lane were damaged. The 154 residents who were put up in hotels around central Kolkata are now being moved to rented places.
This is the second lot of East-West Metro evacuees rehabilitated in rented flats. A tunnelling disaster on August 31, 2019 had led to houses collapsing and evacuation of 754 people. Following this, 23 houses either fell or were razed for safety. A Metro shaft has been built in the open space at Durga Pithuri Lane where these houses stood before the 2019 tunnelling fiasco. The two open ends of the westward tunnel will be joined below the 25m Metro shaft.
Implementing agency Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) is currently strengthening the soil at Durga Pithuri Lane to complete the rest of the construction. Meanwhile, a team of experts from the Jadavpur University has submitted a draft report identifying nine buildings as "severely" and nine others as "moderately" damaged. Their final report will say how many of these unsafe buildings must be pulled down or made habitable after repairs.
Before the JU survey, STUP, design consultants of ITD-ITD Cementation, contractors for the 2.45km Sealdah-Esplanade stretch of East-West Metro, had identified three buildings at Durga Pithuri Lane for demolition. Razing one is currently on.
