Bldg few metres away ‘goes missing’ in no time, neighbours vacate their houses to move to safety
Times of India | 15 January 2025
12345 Kolkata: Bimala Saha was washing utensils in the courtyard outside her house after finishing her lunch when she felt something move behind her, accompanied by a deafening thud. She turned back to find that the tall building only a few metres from her house was missing. When she looked around carefully, she found the entire building leaning on a ground floor house beside it.
She rushed out and joined several other neighbours in staring at the building in disbelief. "The building was vertical when I started washing utensils. In less than five minutes, the building was semi-horizontal and leaning on an adjacent house," said Saha.
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Some who barely started having their lunch left their food unfinished and rushed out to safer places at a distance. "My son just returned from school, and we started having our lunch when we heard a deafening thud followed by screams of people. We immediately rushed out. After a few minutes, when I realised that the building was leaning precariously and could fall on our house, I told my wife to immediately evacuate with some belongings," said Vinay Roy, who moved in with a relative in Vidyasagar Colony.
Arun Saha, who stays in a one-room ground floor house opposite the building — Shubho Apartments — would often supply packaged water to the residents there. "I would provide jars of packaged water to two apartment owners there. When they moved out last month for the repairs, they promised me they would continue to take water from me after returning. I called them up soon after the incident. I am feeling terrible," said Arun.
"I was studying in my room when the tree on our terrace collapsed, and I heard a loud sound. Suddenly, the view in front of the window got dark due to the thick veil of haze from the dust. For the time being, I am moving into my maternal uncle's house in Dum Dum because this building might fall on our house anytime," said Ananyo Haldar, who lives in the house next to Shubho Apartments.