Kolkata: Futnani evacuation to begin tomorrow

KOLKATA: After serving notice on Futnani Chambers on Wednesday, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) on Friday cleared doubts on the evacuation procedure.
The agency implementing the East-West Metro project asked occupants that instead of vacating the premises on Sunday noon, as was notified on Wednesday, the 150-odd occupants will have to move out two hours before — at 10am. Sixty residents living in the 100-cottah wobbly structure right next to KMC headquarters on S N Banerjee Road will be put up in a central Kolkata hotel. They will have to leave their homes immediately after breakfast. All of them can return at 10am next Friday.
The structure has turned into a threat for residents, employees of several offices housed in and lakhs of pedestrians who pass by it. Years of neglect has made the century-old structure weak. It has been identified as the most unsafe among the 86 critical buildings lined up between S N Banerjee Road and Raja Subodh Mullick Square.
Even as they are aware of imminent evacuation, residents and workers of various commercial establishments housed in the Raj-era edifice have many questions. So, officials of ITD-ITD Cementation, the construction firm in charge of the last leg of tunnelling, told them that they could return on Friday morning, if not before, provided TBM Chandi, that’s scheduled to burrow underneath from Sunday night, digs past the 40m length of Futnani Chambers before time.
The first to approach the officials were staff of Café Delight, a bar housed at Futnani Chambers. They wanted to know the precise time of closure and reopening so that they could inform excise department. The officials said the closing time was Sunday morning and that they could reopen the bar on Friday morning. A few years ago, a concrete chunk fell from a balcony of the building. There was no casualty, though. KMC later demolished the balcony, but officials fear the building itself can collapse any time.
Popularly known as “Bata building”, Futnani houses the famous kati roll address, Aminia, and Raunak hotel, which was once a popular night club, Golden Slipper. The building with nine entrances houses residential flats and guest houses. KMC officials said decrepit apartments let out for decades are responsible for its sorry state.