52 Bowbazar residents return to cave-in zone homes on Mahalaya eve
Times of India | 2 October 2024
Kolkata: The 52 Bowbazar residents evacuated from around the East-West Metro site returned home on Tuesday after more than a month as KMRC has completed the job of removing underground piles that had caused water seepage. The temporary relocation was a precaution against subsidence although no ground settlement occurred during the period.
TOI reported on Sept 15 that Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), implementing agency of East-West Metro, was likely to have the residents back at their Durga Pituri Lane and B B Ganguly Street homes on Oct 1.
On Tuesday afternoon, officials of ITD ITD-Cementation, contracted to build the 2.5km Esplanade-Sealdah stretch, took the residents back home from their central Kolkata hotels.
On Sept 5, residents panicked as underground water leakage triggered by the East-West Metro construction at Durga Pituri Lane made the agencies empty six houses in the vicinity. In all, 11 families were shifted to hotels.
“It is nice to be back home the day before Mahalaya. We hope this was the last evacuation,” said Dipankar Dutta of 7 Durga Pituri Lane. He and four other family members had been rushed to a hotel on Sept 7.