Presidency University wants to build a bigger main gate on College Street but five bookstalls that need to be shifted for the project are standing in the way.

The planned gate, similar in height and width to the new gates at the state government hospitals and embossed with artwork, would replace the existing main entrance of the university as part of its bicentennial celebrations, which are to commence next January.

The five stalls that have to be shifted to make way for the gate - two on the left and three on the right, facing College Street - are among the 95 along the boundary wall from Presidency to Hare School.

Campus sources said the university had proposed to bear the expenses of building new stalls for the five on Peary Charan Sarkar Street, the lane between Calcutta University and Presidency University, or Colootola Street, the thoroughfare between Calcutta University and Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.

According to the sources, the university asked the police to get in touch with the stall owners about the shift.

Balaram Sarkar, a partner at one of the five stalls, S. Sarkar, said they had declined to shift. "Our forefathers have been operating here since the time of Hindoo College. This is a prime location. If we are tucked away in a corner of Peary Charan Sarkar Street or Colootola Street, our business will take a hit."

He said officers from Joransanko police station had visited the stall owners several times over the past month to discuss proposals for the shift.

Nurul Amin Mullick, owner of Advanced Book Centre, said on Friday: "We heard that the higher education department is funding the project. So we have dropped a letter at education minister Partha Chatterjee's office today stating that we are opposed to moving."

On Friday evening, a sub-inspector of Jorasanko police station said they had convinced 90 stall-owners on the stretch to shrink the size of their stalls by three inches each so that the five affected stalls could retain their positions by the new gate. "They have agreed to make the sacrifice for the five stalls. As the five stall owners are refusing rehabilitation, we had to work out a solution," said the officer. Mullick said they were open to such a solution.