The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Thursday pulled down a portion of a shop on the ground floor of Indian Coffee House that was being built after demolishing a brick wall of the heritage structure.
A team from the KMC went there in the afternoon and pulled it down.
Metro reported on April 3 that portions of the brick wall on the ground floor of Indian Coffee House off College Street had been demolished, allegedly by a new owner of a part of the ground floor for renovating the space he purchased last year.
The civic body issued a stop-work notice to the owner and filed a complaint with Amherst Street police station.
“A team from the KMC arrived around noon on Thursday. The renovation of a shop on the ground floor was being done by demolishing a pillar-like structure. The owners of the shop had also erected a shutter over the demolished pillar-like structure. The KMC team pulled down the shutter,” said Achintya Kumar Laha, secretary of the Coffee House Social Service Association.
A member of the association said that the new owner of the space had partially demolished a portion of the brick wall and carried out some renovations.
“The new owner has taken over the space earlier occupied by Chuckervertty, Chatterjee and Co Ltd. The previous owners left the space on the ground floor in December. The new owner was redoing the space and demolished portions of the pillars,” said the member.
The iconic bookstore occupied a portion of Coffee House’s western side, facing Presidency University, erstwhile Presidency College.
The Indian Coffee House on 15 Bankim Chatterjee Street is listed as a Grade I heritage building in the Graded List of Heritage Buildings published by the KMC. The graded list mentions that “no external change will be permissible” to a Grade I structure.
“Use of the building should also be compatible with the category of the heritage building,” it adds.
The Coffee House is also listed as a “public institution”.
KMC officials said they had served notices to the owner of the structure. While KMC’s building department served a notice to stop the repair and renovation work, the environment and heritage department’s notice mentioned that no permission was taken to repair the heritage building.
“The demolition of the brick wall seems to have weakened the structure. We have asked the owners of the building to present a repair plan,” said a KMC official.
“The KMC Act says that the owner or occupier of a heritage building must preserve or conserve it. The owners have yet to present the repair plan,” said an official.