Evacuation starts at 3 Mahisbathan buildings

KOLKATA: Occupants of three of the five Mahisbathan buildings, identified for demolition to make way for the New Garia-Airport Metro corridor, started vacating their premises on Wednesday. The state government plans to start demolition on Thursday. The two other structures — a hotel and a guest house — are being left out for the time being. All the buildings came up after the Metro project was notified in 2011.

Last Saturday, the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation served a notice to the occupants and asked them to approach the commissioner to seek compensation. However, a couple of days later, the corporation decided to relocate them and identified shop space for them under the New Town box bridge. The next day, the occupants visited local councillor Prosenjit Sardar with their demands, which included a two-storey building, with land rights, for each.

Less than 24 hours later, they were called to the councillor’s office and asked to pack off immediately. Soon after the 11.30am meeting, some of them started shifting. Amit Mondal, the owner of Mohini Sweets, said he would shift by 8am on Thursday. Sankar Mondal, who had said on Tuesday that he wouldn’t accept the shop spaces under the bridge, told TOI on Wednesday, “Things look extremely bleak, we must move out by today lest something nasty happens.”

RVNL executive director Rajesh Prasad said he was aware of the eviction and the ensuing demolition. “The state government has informed us in a letter that the demolition of the vacated structures will begin on Thursday,” he said. On Wednesday afternoon, RVNL workers accompanied policemen of the Salt Lake Electronic Complex thana to identify the three structures. The two others are being left out for the time being, officials said.

No decisison, however, has yet been taken about the other two multi-storey buildings. When contacted, Balaram Chowdhury, owner of the fivestorey building, said, “We need time. Since we are contractbound with the Oyo group to provide a month’s notice, we can’t move until May-end of early June.” Chowdhury said he would write to the municipal commissioner and explain his situation.

Satrajit Roy, owner of the four-storey hotel, added, “We shall wait for the outcome of a case pending with the land tribunal. The matters will be heard on June 6. If we get proper rehabilitation and compensation, we’ll evacuate.”