Armed with a compensation kitty of Rs 100 crore, the government will begin acquiring 7.5 bighas of land in the city’s central business district after Puja to create the East-West Metro corridor.

The first land-acquisition notices were issued last week to the owners of two central Calcutta properties — 21 Sukia Lane and 21 Brabourne Road — that have to make way for Metro stations and the elevated portions of the tracks. Pawan Kajaria, who owns the building at 21 Brabourne Road, said he did not “foresee any major problem”.

Neither do officials. The joint secretary of transport, Ashis Thakur, believes owners of tenanted properties would be only too happy to settle for compensation from the government because they have been earning little from rent.

“The value of a building if it is full of tenants paying negligible amounts as rent is not much…We have spoken to owners of some of the buildings that are to be acquired and they have no problems as they are getting hardly anything out of these properties. These buildings are full of tenants who they cannot remove.”

All notices are to be issued under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, which prevents owners of properties from challenging the government in a court of law.

But they can move court if the compensation amount is inadequate.

Other than monetarily compensating the owners of buildings that will be demolished, the government has said it will rehabilitate displaced traders at Tirreta Bazar in central Calcutta and near the Nonapukur tram depot, on AJC Bose Road. Both places have vacant land owned by the transport department.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation has already cleared the proposal sent by the transport department for the rehabilitation scheme at Tirreta Bazar.

The East-West Metro project, which Delhi cleared only last month, will connect Salt Lake to Howrah and have 12 stations along the way. All six stations in the central business district will be underground. “But a lot of land is required for surface structures like entrances, exits, gates and air ducts,” a transport department official said.

Land will be also required in Duttabad, adjoining Salt Lake, where there is a large slum. “Residents of the slum will be rehabilitated elsewhere, but not very far from their present dwellings,” the official said.

Calcutta Metro Railway Corporation Ltd, the company formed by the government, has already invited international bids from general consultants for the Rs 10,000-crore transit system, a portion of which will be under the Hooghly. The last date for bidding is July 31.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation will be providing half the estimated project cost as a soft loan. The rest will be shared by the Centre and the state government.

Kajaria, whose property houses shops and offices, said he had already spoken to officials about the land acquisition notice and that he had no apprehensions as of now. “But we have not discussed the compensation amount as yet.”

Sources said more notices would be issued in the next few months and land-acquisition would be in “full swing” after Puja in October.