More than 20 families had to be evacuated as cracks appeared in around nine buildings. So, over a hundred people, including children, women, the elderly, and others, were shifted to nearby hotels
Clad in a faded blue shirt and black trousers, with stresses of mud all over, 47-year-old Dulal Chandra Bera stood in front of a local jewellery shop in North Kolkata’s Bowbazar area. Tears rolled down. A neighbour held him tight before Bera further broke down. “Shob bhenge gyalo, Shob sesh hoye gyalo go,” (everything has collapsed and everything is finished),” he said.
Bera is one of the hundreds of people who had to leave their homes at midnight on 12 May due to the fear of building collapse. Metro railway tunnel construction work has been going on in this area for the last three years. This work led to a series of building collapses in 2019. The fear resurfaced again this month as residents of several buildings reported cracks in the walls and tremors on 12 May.
More than 20 families had to be evacuated as cracks appeared in around nine buildings. So, over a hundred people, including children, women, the elderly, and others, were shifted to nearby hotels. On 31 August 2019, similar incidents took place at the Durga Pituri Lane in Bowbazar. It has been over 31 months and hundreds of families have not returned to their homes. Many people had to leave again, and others who did not leave are scared that they could become homeless any day.
“Nightmare Of 2019 returned”
“It was late afternoon and I was taking a bath. I suddenly noticed that a small portion of the bathroom ceiling had fallen down. These buildings are more than a hundred years old, so at first, I thought that there was nothing to worry about. But in the evening I realised that there are more than seven different places where a similar thing has happened. It struck me. In 2019, in front of my eyes, my friend’s house collapsed. I immediately came out of my home and knocked on the door of my neighbour to discuss the matter,” said 53-year old Mintu Sen, who was sitting at a small hotel where the administration had shifted him.
He said that the neighbour informed him that she felt tremors last night, which had caused similar damage to her house as well. “We immediately met other neighbours and every one of them complained the same. We panicked. In 2019, several houses in this area collapsed due to the ongoing Metro tunnel work. We thought that the nightmare was returning. We immediately called the police and the administration. After checking the complaints, the metro administration informed us that what we thought was right. The cracks have occurred due to the metro work,” Sen narrated.
He said that before they decided on their next course of action, a group of police personnel entered the lane. “A big group of police entered the lane with a mic, speaker, and sticks. They announced that we would have to vacate our homes within 10 minutes. They also said that these buildings could collapse any time. We could not pack our belongings, so we left the house. That night, they shifted us to some nearby hotels.”
The people there complained that the administration had put three-four families in a three-bed bedded room in these hotels. They also alleged that the police had sealed the area and had not allowed them to return to take their belongings.
“We are stuck between politics of state and Centre”
The work of the east-west Metro has been going on since 2019 in this area. Bowbazar is a crowded old locality in North Kolkata, which is the older part of the city. The Bowbazar area is the jewellery hub of Kolkata. The area is full of old buildings with dark, narrow lanes and by-lanes. Many residents claim that some of the buildings are more than 200 years old.
Lanes in Bowbazar area of North Kolkata where metro construction work is going on. Image courtesy Sayantan Ghosh
According to several reports, the 2019 incident happened due to excessive withdrawal of groundwater for the metro construction. After the incident, the Metro administration promised that they would keep these issues in mind and that such things would never be repeated. However, an expert team formed by the Kolkata corporation found out that this time too, these cracks appeared because of the same groundwater withdrawal issue.
A senior official aware of the development said, on the condition of anonymity, “Approximately 14 metres beneath the surface of the land in the Bowbazar area is a clay layer. The sand layer was already drained of water when the accident occurred during the East-West Metro construction. As a consequence, after puncturing the sand layer, the Tunnel Boring Machin (TBM) gushed water into the tunnel, causing the clay layer to lose water and the clay mass to settle unevenly.”
He also stated that this dynamic was apparently replicated recently during the attempt to remove two tunnel boring machines from the underground, where a new incision may have been made, resulting in a fresh release of water from the sand layer, causing another spell of subsidence.
Dulal Chandra Bera, a resident of the area, said, “The residents of this area are stuck between the politics of the Central government and the state government. The Metro administration does not want to take responsibility for the work they are doing. Meanwhile, the state administration says that this is not under their purview. Amid this tussle, we have lost our homes; our businesses are on the verge of closing down, we don’t know what will happen to our houses, and we don’t even know whether we will ever be able to return to our older lifestyle.”
‘Metro administration responsible for house collapse’
The Kolkata Municipal corporation set up an expert committee to investigate the situation of the houses present in that area. According to senior officials, the expert committee has already submitted its report and based on that report, two houses are being demolished by the authorities.
A senior official said, “In 2029, the state government gave clear instructions on the issues the metro railway corporations should keep in mind. However, the expert committee has found out that none of these points was maintained by the authorities. When a project as big as East-West Metro construction is going on, only the specific authorities who are working on the ground can take care of the ground issues. Today, the situation has worsened completely because of the Metro authorities. Neither the state government nor the Kolkata municipal corporations have any role to play in this matter.”
‘No compensation can heal our loss’
In several meetings with the local MLA and MP, the residents of Durga Pituri Lane and Shyakra Para Lane have claimed that they do not want any compensation but want to return to their homes. Shoma Bagchi, a resident, said, “We have made one point very clear: That compensations are not needed because the administrations do not take the responsibilities and play with us unnecessarily.”
Durga Pituri Lane in North Kolkata sealed by police due to metro construction work. Image courtesy Sayantan Ghosh
The residents pointed out that in 2019 when the houses collapsed the state government instructed the Metro to give compensation but the Metro delayed the process and in many cases, people did not get any compensation.
Adding to her, Santosh Shaw, a 43-year-old jewellery shop owner, who has three houses in the area, said, “Four generations of our family have spent their lives in these houses. Some lakhs of rupees cannot buy those memories of childhood. Today, due to this ongoing work, our business has completely stopped. The citizens are scared to visit our shops because, at any time, buildings can collapse.”
Shaw said that the residents do not have any problem with the Metro work because they believe that it is for every citizen of Kolkata. Sen claimed that the authorities must ensure and give a clear timeline of when the residents can return to their homes.
The author is an independent journalist based in Kolkata and a former policy research fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre. He tweets @sayantan_gh. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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