2 more SNB Road houses evacuated for Kolkata Metro work

KOLKATA: Two houses—one three-storeyed and the other four-storeyed—were evacuated on Monday for the East-West Metro tunnelling work. TBM Chandi, which is digging the west-bound tunnel of the Metro corridor, has been curving left from S N Banerjee Road since Thursday and is now headed towards the Lenin Sarani-Nirmal Chandra Street crossing, through serpentine alleys, like Goaltuli Lane and Guru Prasad Ghosh Lane.
Several rickety buildings fell in the path of the tunnel’s curve. Also, quite a few unsafe structures are within 40m of the TBM, considered the borer’s influence zone, on S N Banerjee Road itself. Among them are the two addresses, 122, S N Banerjee Road and 121/2A, S N Banerjee Road, which were evacuated in the last 24 hours.
These structures, along with another 15-odd buildings, have been a cause of worry for Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), implementing agency for the Metro corridor from Sector V to Howrah Maidan through the Hooghly. KMC had recently declared some of the buildings “condemned” and slapped “repair” diktat on others.
Rajesh Gupta, owner of the second floor of 121/2A SN Banerjee Road, said, “We have been asked to stay out of our premises for the next three days. We didn’t know that the condition of our building was so bad that we could not live in it during the tunnelling operation.”
Around 30 residents of the two buildings, who have been shifted to a central Kolkata hotel, could not take any step towards repairing their homes earlier. Gupta, who works in a sari shop on Sudder Street, said, “Our building could be more than 100 years old. We have no idea about its foundation or structural condition. On the surface, it looks fine to us.” His grandfather, Ram Pyare Lal, bought their flat many years ago. He and his two brothers live there with their families. “There are five tenants, who pay Rs 350 to Rs 400 a month as rent. Despite our low rental income, we do try to maintain the house,” said Gupta.