The illegal construction on Armenian Street that had been stalled but started again in April. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

An illegal Burrabazar structure whose construction the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) had stalled five months ago is being raised again, putting the old building adjacent to it in peril.

A week ago, a portion of a wall of the old building on Brabourne Road collapsed under the impact of the illegal construction activity next to it. Occupants of the three-storeyed 108 Old China Bazaar Street have since been living in fear of the building, or at least a part of it, crumbling in a heap because of the illegal construction on 3/1/2 Armenian Street.

“The foundation of our building was tampered with when the base of the structure next to it was being laid,” said a resident of 108 Old China Bazaar Street.

Ten rooms in the building house commercial firms. The remaining floor space is divided among three residential apartments. On an average, over 400 people visit the building daily.

On September 6, masons were at work on the staircase of the new structure when the base of the rear wall of 108 Old China Bazaar Street caved in. When the workers raised an alarm, the promoter hurriedly ordered 5,000 bricks to rebuild the wall that was damaged. Iron rods and bamboo sticks were used to support the part of the base that had given way.

Workers have since resumed construction at the adjacent site.

The promoter, Bikki Sikharia, confirmed the incident but denied that the entire building next to the one under construction was under threat. “The building at 108 Old China Bazaar Street is a very old one. A small portion of the wall collapsed, which we have repaired,” he said.

Metro had reported about the illegal construction at 3/1/2 Armenian Street in March. That was shortly after the rear portion of the three-storeyed building there was demolished and reconstructed without adhering to norms. The building is near Nandaram Market, where a fire had raged for over 100 hours in January.

Work on the building was stalled for over a month after the report was published, but construction resumed in the last week of April. But Moushumi Ghosh, the chairman of borough V, said she didn’t know that workers were back at the site. “The CMC had stopped construction at 3/1/2 Armenian Street. I have no clue when work resumed.”

The borough V chief promised appropriate steps if it was proved that construction activity at the site had endangered nearby buildings. “We have already asked our engineers to find out whether the foundation of the nearby buildings have been weakened,” she said.

Officers of Burrabazar police station said they had received no complaint yet against the builder.

As many as 20 buildings are in various stages of construction in and around Burrabazar. Most of them are allegedly illegal.

“Promoters are given permission only to renovate old buildings, which they demolish on the sly and raise new structures,” another borough V official said.