Houses in Bowbazar develop cracks once again due to metro railway work
On Wednesday evening, up to 10 houses on Durga Pithuri Lane in Bowbazar in Kolkata developed cracks due to underground metro railway work. The cracks were big enough to scare the residents of those houses to flee.
According to the residents, the houses had started shaking and developing cracks two to three days back, but yesterday evening, the situation became much more serious. The cracks could be seen on the floors and the walls.
What was surprising, according to the residents, was that no metro official was present to enquire about the situation when they started leaving their houses in droves. Later, though, some officials went there and asked the residents to leave their houses, taking along Aadhaar Cards and whatever other identification documents they had.
Some of the local students told media outlets that with their exams near at hand, they were clueless as to how they could leave their houses and where to put themselves up in order to prepare properly.
Durga Pithuri Lane has several gold jewellery shops. The workers lived in the shops they worked in. They said they had to leave on short notice, without taking along any of their stuff. The shops could not be opened today morning. The workers and owners said they were fearful of the security of the precious jewellery stored inside.
Similar cracks due to metro railway digging had developed in 2019, and several houses had collapsed as well. At that time, the residents had to stay in hotels for two to three months, till their houses were repaired. The metro authorities had arranged for the hotel rooms.
This time too, the metro authorities have started plans for putting up the affected residents in hotels till repairs are completed. The police have surrounded the area. Mayor Firhad Hakim took a recce of the place.
