The civic body will decommission a part of New Market that has been lying in a decrepit state and has warned stall-owners and customers to use it “at their own risk”.

A technical team will inspect the market, following which the authorities will declare “condemned” the part that houses fish, beef and vegetable stalls — comprising one-fourth of the total area.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Tuesday.

The others at the meeting included joint municipal commissioner Sahidul Islam, director-general (building) Gora Chand Mondol and manager (market) Bhaskar Ghosh.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation has stopped taking rent from the 250-odd stalls in the unsafe part from April. “The rent will be collected again after the portion is rebuilt,” said a civic official.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya denied the traders’ allegation that rent collection has been stopped only to drive them out of the market.

“We only want to clear the area to facilitate its reconstruction. The traders will be resettled after the restoration,” the mayor said.

An official pointed out that the civic body will be responsible for any mishap in the unsafe part if it keeps collecting rent. He, however, ruled out any temporary rehabilitation scheme for the traders.

Secretary of the Shopkeepers’ Welfare Association Pradip Chakraborty wondered what had prompted the authorities to stop collecting rent now, since the portion was declared “unsafe” as early as in 2000.

Around 300 traders on Tuesday held a demonstration in the office of the New Market superintendent and handed over a memorandum to the manager (market) to protest the suspension of rent collection.

Reconstruction will cost Rs 10 crore and the project will be taken up in a joint venture with a private party.