Pre-1857 cop horse paddock shifted for Metro stn work
Times of India | 6 June 2024
Kolkata: The Kolkata Mounted Police-run paddock will shift across Dufferin Road to a plot next to Shahid Minar in the Maidan to enable the construction of the terminal station of the Joka-Esplanade Metro line. The proposed paddock has already been fenced.
One of the country’s oldest mounted police divisions, the Kolkata Mounted Police uses the paddock for the workout of its horses.
A source in Mounted Police said the Indian Army’s Eastern Command, the custodian of the Maidan, had allocated a 22,600 sq ft plot near Shahid Minar to temporarily house the paddock when the current facility near Manohar Das Tarag is dismantled to facilitate metro construction work.
The final stretch of the line leading to the terminal Esplanade station passes right under the paddock spread over 3,000 sq m or over 32,000 sq ft. The horses belonging to Mounted Police make their way to the paddock from the stables on SN Banerjee Road everyday to trot and exercise on the green patch.
The Army has allowed use of the temporary paddock for five years. At the end of the term, the paddock has to be relocated back to where it is currently situated. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), the agency in charge of constructing the purple metro line, has to complete the tunneling work and restore the surface by 2029 so that the paddock can be re-established at the site.
“Till that time, we will be able to use the temporary paddock for the workout of horses,” said a senior officer of the Mounted Police. The regimen practised at the paddock is crucial to maintain a fit mounted regiment of 75 horses.
This is not the first time that Mounted Police has been asked to shift its paddock’s location. In the late 1990s, it had to wind up its earlier paddock situated near the Royal Calcutta Turf Club. The paddock was then set up at the current location between Bidhan Market and Manohar Das Tarag.