The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has asked hawkers at Jatin Das Park, who were relocated from Kalighat to make space for the construction of the Kalighat skywalk, to vacate by the end of April.
A new hawkers’ corner has been built next to the skywalk and was inaugurated on April 14.
Four floors in the five-storey building have been reserved for the 175 hawkers who were shifted when the skywalk construction began in 2021.
The stalls at Jatin Das Park in Hazra were set up carving out space from a portion of the park.
Hundreds of people visit the park every day and a shrinking of the open space meant more people had to walk or sit in a smaller area.
Once the hawkers move out of Jatin Das Park, the KMC will demolish many of the stalls.
“We have plans to return this portion to its original form as a park. There was a lawn with hedges around it,” said a KMC official.
Some stalls, however, will not be demolished. They will be used to rehabilitate shop owners who have to be evicted for the construction of an extension of Ramrik Das Haralalka Hospital in Bhowanipore.
“We have asked the hawkers at Jatin Das Park to leave by April 30,” a KMC official said.
The KMC had to pull down the old building of the Kalighat Refugee Hawkers’ Corner for the construction of the skywalk.
The agreement between the KMC and the hawkers said they would be given temporary space at Jatin Das Park to carry out their trade, and that the civic body would raise a new space for them at the same location.
“We were promised we would be brought back to Kalighat within a year, but the construction of the skywalk took so long. We will return after more than three-and-a-half years,” said a stall owner.
Satyajit Saha, secretary of the association of shop owners at the hawkers’ corner, said all the stall owners have started setting up shelves and other storage facilities in their stalls.
“The work has started and we plan to move there on Akshaya Tritiya, April 30,” said Saha.
“We will stick to the deadline set by the KMC,” he said.
The old building of the Kalighat Refugee Hawkers’ Corner was built by some hawkers who came to Calcutta during the Partition. The hawker first started to set up stalls on an open ground.
“There was a bus terminus at that time in that open ground. All the hawkers contributed money and built a building to carry out their business. Thus, the Kalighat Refugee Hawkers’ Corner was born,” said Saha, who has heard stories about setting up the building from his father.
The old building was located at the intersection of Kali Temple Road and SP Mukherjee Road. The new building has come up at the same place.