A section of the interior of McDonald’s when it opened in March 2007

Big Mac is on its way back. The 55 Park Street address — now shrouded in an under-construction canopy — will be buzzing with the burger crowd again by April-end.

Six months after an explosion had ripped through its first outlet in town, Vikram Bakshi, the managing director of McDonald’s India (north and east), told Metro: “Yes, absolutely, we are coming back. There is no reason not to, considering the kind of response we got here. In the next two months, two of our restaurants will get going, on Park Street and at Mani Square. We are hopeful that a third restaurant will open by the end of this year.”

The restaurant is being restructured “because of the fairly large impact” and re-construction has started with some changes to the interiors, he added.

The international fast food chain had opened doors on March 9, 2007, only to be forced shut by a mystery blast on the morning of August 12, that killed a pedestrian and injured four employees.

With the final forensic report still a secret, the cause of the explosion is not clear yet. Theories range from “AC duct pressure” to “dust in the AC ducts” to “LPG leak” to “methane accumulation” to “mala fide intentions”.

In town on Thursday, Bakshi said: “I would not like to speculate, but I believe it was a freak incident.... The LPG theory is full of holes.”

The other confusion is about compensation. Aftab Hussain Ansari, 24, was killed by the impact of the explosion while waiting to cross Park Street and reach his home in Queens Mansion.

“Somebody from McDonald’s came to meet us in January, but where were they for so long? We have not received any compensation till now,” Mohammad Alauddin, Aftab’s father, told Metro.

“There has been no response from the family. We want to help the younger brother with employment or sustainable compensation,” claimed Bakshi.

Alauddin has filed a case of negligence against McDonald’s. “It took four months for us to get the boy’s post-mortem report and the forensic reports have been denied to us,” alleged R.K. Khanna, the lawyer carrying Alauddin’s brief.

Picking up the pieces after the “freak incident” on August 12, the burger giant remains bullish about Bengal. “We continue to believe that Calcutta and the east is a large market. This will be the growth area for us in the next three to five years and we plan to open 15 restaurants here,” said Bakshi.

The McDonald’s at Mani Square, on the Bypass, will be a full-menu format affair with 150-plus covers. The chain also has plans for smaller restaurants and kiosks, plus tie-ups with railway stations and airports. “We will invest Rs 100 crore in the east in three to five years. We are also considering putting up a separate bakery, here,” concluded Bakshi.