Park Circus market unsafe, declares Kolkata Municipal Corporation after survey

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has declared Park Circus market unsafe after an on-the-spot survey by the civic buildings department engineers.
The engineers were sent to the spot after a concrete chunk fell off a second-floor parapet of the 75-year old market, injuring a shopper critically a fortnight ago. A KMC markets department team had rushed to the spot and after a preliminary inspection of the structure, referred the matter to the civic body’s buildings department.

The buildings department engineers inspected the site and carried out a structural test of the affected parts of the building. After completion of the study, the report of the findings was presented to the markets department, based on which the latter decided to declare the market unsafe. “We have found several parts of the building unsafe for traders and shoppers. We can’t take chances after the July 4 accident. According to our survey, either an overhaul is needed to ensure structural safety of the old market building or the structure would need to be razed,” said a KMC markets department official.
The markets department on Tuesday held a preliminary meeting with a section of traders and talked about a redevelopment plan. “From our understanding, it goes without saying that the traders and the shoppers are in a vulnerable position as the market is crying for an urgent repair. For now, we will concentrate on urgent repairs of the vulnerable parts. But we need to take up a redevelopment scheme of the market. To begin with, we have talked about temporary shifting of the vendors,” said a civic official.
According to plans that the KMC is chalking out for the redevelopment package, the civic body may need to shift 147 fish, vegetable and fruit vendors first. In the second phase, the stall owners will be shifted. “We can’t shift around 550 traders at one go for want of space. We will need to shift them in phases,” said a KMC markets department official.
A similar redevelopment plan didn’t see the light of the day in 2007 owing to resistance from a section of the traders in getting shifted to Park Circus Maidan. KMC had inked an agreement with Reliance Retail for the redevelopment of the market. However, the project was shelved as the shifting plan of the traders couldn’t be materialized.