Kolkata metro disaster: Unstable houses continue to crumble in Bowbazar

KOLKATA: Portions of two buildings in the Bowbazar Metro disaster zone collapsed on Monday, triggering concerns about the fate of a large swathe of one of Kolkata’s oldest neighbourhoods to have developed organically.

TOI had on Monday quoted John Endicott — an expert heading the team of tunnelling and grouting specialists at work in the disaster zone — warning that more buildings in the belt might be at risk of collapsing.
Another TOI Monday-morning report described how more buildings outside the immediate affected area were developing cracks.
The two buildings, portions of which collapsed on Monday, stood less than 10 metres apart at 8B and 9 Shyakra Para Lane. Both are within the immediate radius of the area affected by the underground mishap that happened on August 31, which triggered the crisis involving Kolkata’s biggest ongoing infrastructure project valued at Rs 8,575 crore (not including probable cost overruns).
Four houses have now been reduced to dust and six others are in various stages of collapse.
The portion of 9 Shyakra Para Lane that crumbled around 11am on Monday was hanging precariously since last Thursday. A portion of the other building, at 8B Shyakra Para Lane, came down an hour later; this three-storeyed structure started developing cracks since last Monday.
“My house is crumbling before me,” Piyali Sen, owner of the 9 Shyakra Para Lane building, said.
“This is surreal, almost like the Christopher Nolan movie ‘Inception’. Houses are falling apart and an entire loc-ality is crumbling,” Debasis Sen, whose family was among the first to be evacuated late on August 31, and one of the three owners of Sen House at 8B Shyakra Para Lane, said. The other two owners are his brother, Ashish, and his sister-in-law, Bhabani.