Calcutta and Howrah ends by putting up barricades. On the Calcutta side, bamboo barricades had been put up at Hastings along the approach to the bridge (in picture below). Away from the bridge, traffic in central Calcutta was reduced to a crawl for about three hours as several thousand protesters and a 2,000-strong police force were engaged in a series of skirmishes. Pictures by Shyamal Maitra and Pradip Sanyal
May 22: The construction company building the twin East-West Metro tunnels from Howrah has served a notice to the occupants of 25 buildings along Brabourne Road about the need to evacuate and strengthen the structures before the boring machines pass by.
The notice from Transtonnelstroy Afcons asks the occupants/owners to be present at Calcutta High Court on June 6 when a petition filed by the company comes up for a hearing. "Some of the critical buildings standing on Brabourne Road above the tunnel require immediate evacuation of the inmates as well as strengthening urgently," states the notice.
Afcons has not specified which of the 25 buildings identified as being vulnerable would need to be evacuated.
The notice comes 10 days after the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) wrote to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation about the unstable buildings. Metro was the first to report on the KMRC identifying some buildings for possible evacuation before the first tunnel-boring machine crosses Brabourne Road on its way to Esplanade.
The buildings have been divided into categories A and B. The nine buildings in category A are in a "very poor condition" and might need to be evacuated or demolished. The same document also states that these nine buildings would require "fitness certificates" from the civic body.
Category B comprises the 16 buildings that are in a "poor condition". These structures too would need fitness certificates from CMC.
Residents of Colvin Court, a complex for railway officials in Howrah, had to temporarily shift elsewhere during the tunnel-boring operation there. The Howrah District Library building developed some cracks and a portion of the structure was sealed.
On Brabourne Road, each copy of the notice issued by Afcons bears the address of the building on which it is pasted. The notice states that the owner(s) of the "concerned building could not be identified" because of which the notice had been pasted on a wall for everyone to see.
Identifying the ownership of buildings in Burrabazar is a difficult task since most of them have many stakeholders.
Sources in the KMRC said copies of the notice were pasted on the buildings on Sunday to avoid any resistance. "We have not mentioned which building needs evacuation because that needs more detailed discussion," said an official.
Several traders said they were yet to hear "anything specific" from the KMRC. "Whatever we know are from newspapers. A couple of months ago, someone had come to us and asked questions like how many shops run out of each building," said Rahul Gupta, who runs his paper business from a building in Jackson Lane.
Gupta's building is one of the nine identified as being in a "very poor condition".
Jayant Doshi, who occupies a portion of a building on NS Road, claimed that he had not seen any notice pasted on a wall. "Some KMRC people did come to my office a week ago and seek permission to take pictures," he said.
Most traders said they were anxious about the possibility of evacuation mainly because nobody had told them how long they would need to stay away. "This business is my only source of income. Shutting it down will send my customers elsewhere," said Rajnish Agarwal, who runs a hardware business from Raja Woodmount Street.
The notice mentions that the occupiers and owners of the 25 buildings should visit the KMRC office on Foreshore Road to collect a copy of Afcons's writ petition by showing proof of ownership/occupancy. "We will hold a meeting and give our views in the courtroom," a trader said.
