Wooden beams inserted into the deep cracks hold a wall together in a building in Behala. Laying of sewage pipes has damaged buildings in the area. A Telegraph picture

The civic authorities will set up a team to assess the damage caused to buildings in Behala, Garden Reach and Jadavpur during the laying of underground sewage pipes.

“Something must be done to repair the buildings... But the extent of damage has to be ascertained first,” mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said on Thursday.

The assessment team, to be headed by principal chief engineer (project and development) Nilangshu Bose, will also figure out the cost of repairing the buildings.

Metro reported on Thursday that around 100 buildings in ward 129 of Behala have developed cracks — some have been damaged at the foundation — during the drainage revamp work under the Calcutta Environment Improvement Project (CEIP).

Civic commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay spoke to CEIP project director Santanu Basu, who said “hardly 10 complaints” were received in the past five months.

The meeting was attended by the chief of municipal finance and account, Debotosh Dasgupta, director-general (building) Gorachand Mondol and principal chief engineer Bose.

The civic body will also consult a solicitors’ firm to explore whether the agreement with the contractors can be recast, keeping the interest of the house-owners in mind.

All contractors engaged in the project have insurance coverage, but there is no clause in the agreement to pay compensation to house-owners for “small damage”.

A civic official said a contractor will get compensation for the injury of a labourer or even for the damage to an equipment worth Rs 500. But for damage to a house, the owner will be compensated only if the repair cost exceeds Rs 4 lakh. “We want to redraw the agreement,” asserted the commissioner.

The drainage revamp work in Behala, Garden Reach and Jadavpur — which were merged with the civic body in 1984 — has been taken up with a Rs 1,800-crore loan from the Asian Development Bank.