The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has served notices to hawkers and shopowners under all flyovers and bridges in the city to vacate the space within a week, an official said. The notices were served over the last two days.
Some of the markets with hundreds of shops or stalls will be given a little more time. The objective is to keep the space under a flyover free of any encroachment and ensure good health of the bridges and flyovers, said the official.
“We have pasted the notices under the bridges and flyovers. We have also made announcements in these locations,” a KMC official said on Sunday.
“The state government has instructed us to keep the space under flyovers and bridges free of any encroachment so that the conditions of the structures do not deteriorate,” said the official.
Because of encroachment it is not possible to examine the flyovers and bridges from below, he said. In many places, hawkers have blocked access to the piers of a flyover, said the official. “This can turn out to be dangerous for the safety of the structures,” he said.
Sources said some of the flyovers have hundreds of shops running from the space under the structures for decades. Sisir Market under Sealdah flyover is a case in point. The space under Brabourne Road flyover has an office of KMC that too will be removed, said the official.
The Kolkata Police has its traffic outposts under Park Street and Gariahat flyovers.
The state government started an audit of the health of bridges and flyovers in Calcutta following the collapse of the Majerhat bridge in September 2018. The process involved an examination of the health of the structures, suggestion of remedial measures by a committee of engineers and implementing the measures. The work has not been completed in case of several bridges and flyovers.
Since the BJP government assumed power in the state, hawkers have been evicted from many railway properties.
Whether the KMC manages to remove hawkers from the space under flyovers remains to be seen as it would hit the livelihoods of several hundreds of shopowners and stalls running from these spaces.