KOLKATA: Canning Street was back in business on Friday as traders around the
fire-ravaged Bagri Market opened their shops after a gap of
five days even in the absence of power in most stores.
“This is supposed to be the busiest time of the year for us but the disaster forced us to shut our business for the last five days. But now that the fire has been completely doused, we could not wait any more to open our shops,” said Tapan Halder, the owner of an optical store opposite Bagri Market. With no power in his shop, Halder managed with a generator on Friday. A section of traders even ran their shops under candle light. Wholesale medicine stores incurred further losses as many drugs were damaged after being kept out of refrigerators for long hours.
“We cannot wait any longer for the electricity to be restored. So we opened our store. But it is so dark that we can barely attend to customers and show them the products they are looking for. I just hope CESC restores power to our markets soon,” said Santosh Roy, who runs a bag shop at 3, Amartolla Lane.
Infuriated by the absence of power in the area over the last five days, a section of residents even went to Burrabazar police station to lodge a complaint against CESC. However, the cops asked them to first approach the authorities and then lodge a complaint.
“We went to CESC, too, in the afternoon, but the authorities asked us to wait till Saturday. There is no power and water connection at our homes,” said Pranav Rathor, a resident of 72, Canning Street, who was the first witness to the Bagri Market fire and the man who had made the first call to the fire department last Sunday.
CESC officials said they had no option but to keep the services shut as houses in the vicinity of Bagri Market, as well as key installations like transformers and feeder boxes, had got drenched during the fire-fighting operation. “Our engineers assessed the situation on Wednesday and Thursday and felt that power lines should not be restored now. We are trying to evaluate alternative lines to power the buildings, but unless the walls dry up, people staying there could get electrocuted,” explained CESC vice-president (distribution) Avijit Ghosh.
That the skies have opened up hasn’t helped matters. “We do maintain services during the rain, but the drenching that happens during fire-fighting is very different. We have provided lights during the fire so that fire-fighting operations could continue after dark. We have also provided light points in Bagri Market on the request of police and firemen. But we cannot switch on the network till we are sure it won’t cause any mishap,” he said.
A section of underground cables that also supplied power to Bagri Market and parts of the locality may have to be replaced. CESC officials said they will continue to take stock of the situation during the weekend and hoped to start restoring supply in a couple of days.
While a handful could afford generator, others manage to run their shops with emergency lights, torch and even candles
