Orphangunge Market in Kidderpore where a fire broke out early on
Monday, reducing hundreds of shops to ashes, did not have any firefighting mechanism in place.

The market has been under the custody of the state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for years, said officials of the civic body.

No water reservoir, no pipelines to source water during an emergency, no drainage system, no fire alarm — the market where thousands visit every day has been operating without these facilities for years.

On Monday, mayor Firhad Hakim told Metro that the civic body will install fire safety tools when the KMC builds a new market in place of the old market, now reduced to ruins.

“It was a very old market. It was handed over to us only a few years ago. We will build a new market with modern facilities. When the new market is built, we will equip it with fire safety tools,” said Hakim.

“The market came up on land belonging to the state irrigation department. The district administration of South 24-Parganas was in charge of its maintenance till it was handed over to the KMC,” Hakim added.

The South 24-Parganas district administration handed over the market’s custody to KMC in 2022. According to the sources in the KMC, there were around 700 shops in the market spread across 30 bighas.

Traders in the market told this newspaper on Monday that after its handover to KMC, they had several meetings with civic officials, where they had flagged the absence of fire safety measures and drainage facilities in the market.

The water used to douse the flames led to waterlogging in pockets of the market. A layer of thick mud has formed inside the market.

Gour Saha, secretary of Orphangunge Market Babosayee Samity, said KMC had assured them of better facilities — a proper drainage network and fire safety tools. “But these were never set up, despite the promises made in the meetings,” said Saha.

KMC officials argued that constructing a new drainage network or installing fire safety equipment in the congested market was very difficult. There is hardly any open space left. Besides the shops, many temporary stalls have come up on the passages, said the officials.

“There is a vacant plot next to the market. We may have to build a temporary market there and then rebuild the market in its original place,” said a KMC official.