Several residents of Bowbazar's Durga Pituri Lane whose houses have been pulled down or identified as “severely damaged” following the East-West Metro tunnel disaster on May 11, said they were averse to moving into one big building sacrificing their individual land rights.
Affected residents who are now staying in hotels or rented accommodations said they wanted to return to the houses they had left behind, instead of moving into any new big building.
On Saturday, mayor Firhad Hakim had proposed to relocate all displaced residents to one address in Durga Pituri Lane, instead of rebuilding the damaged structures.
Hakim had said senior officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) would meet the displaced residents within a week or two and explain the proposal to them.
“After pulling down my four-storey house, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (the implementing agency of East-West Metro) met us a number of times to discuss the proposed plan of the building that will come up on the plot. That was in 2021. Why will we accept any alternative proposal?" wondered Swapan Boral of 14/1A Durga Pituri Lane.
“This is an absurd proposal. We are waiting to move into the new house.”
The May 11 disaster was the second in Bowbazar in three years triggered by tunnelling work of East-West Metro. In 2019, a subsidence caused by tunnelling work had damaged many buildings, including Boral’s.
Cracks appeared in many of the damaged buildings again last month.
“KMRC officials while handing us the sanctioned plan had said the mayor had given a special permission to rebuild the houses just the way they had been,” said Boral, in his 70s, who now lives with his family in a rented apartment in New Town.
Hakim had said on Saturday that current rules would not allow building a structure four-storey high along the narrow Durga Pituri Lane. The width of a road in front of a four-storey building should be at least 14 feet.
Durga Pituri Lane is around 5feet wide.
The best alternative, according to the mayor, will be to build the new homes in one place on a large parcel of land. But that can be possible only if the affected residents are willing to hand their land rights to the KMC.
Pradip Laha, whose house (10A Durga Pituri Lane) is among the ones identified as “severely damaged”, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee had in 2019 said the displaced would get a house for the one that would be pulled down.
“She had said the owners would have their land rights and also the right to the terrace. How can anyone ask me to give up my land rights?" he asked.
Senior officials in the civic building department said the residents would not be forced to accept anything. “We will meet the residents, discuss with them all aspects of the proposal and hear them out,” said an official.
