Old tilted bldg to stay on Christopher Road, new structure to face hammer
Times of India | 25 January 2025
123 Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided not to proceed with the demolition of the old building on Christopher Road that has tilted after a new building was constructed next to it. Parts of the latter will, however, be demolished as it flouted multiple rules and is seen to be primarily responsible for the former's tilt.
The decisions were taken by the civic body after several rounds of talks with the structural engineer who surveyed the twin buildings on Thursday. A formal announcement is expected to be made on Monday.
On Friday, civic authorities sent a message to the residents, flat owners, and tenants of Pushpanjali Apartment, the tilted building, urging them not to panic over the demolition order that had been issued two days ago. KMC had on Wednesday asked the residents to vacate the building to facilitate the demolition. While a portion of the building on a section of the terrace may still have to be pulled down to ensure its structural stability, civic officials said they would try to ensure that the flat owners are least affected.
"We have spotted an additional construction on the terrace which may pose a threat to the building's structural safety in the future. We may need to reduce this additional load," said a KMC buildings department official.
Reacting to the condition of the tilted building on Christopher Road, mayor Firhad Hakim said the civic body would take a final decision on the fate of the building on Monday after receiving the formal report from the structural engineer. He also assured that considering the plight of the building, the focus of the civic administration would be to safeguard the interests of its residents who have nowhere to go.
However, the mayor warned citizens against purchasing flats that have no legal sanction. "I appeal to the citizens not to get trapped by the lure of a section of unscrupulous promoters and invite trouble. Prospective flat buyers should check the legal status of an under-construction building with the KMC buildings department and then invest their hard-earned money," said Hakim.
Residents living in 12 flats of the two-year-old illegal six-storey building (Pushpanjali Apartment) were asked to vacate their homes and remove their belongings at the earliest after it came to notice that the building had started tilting against another six-storey under-construction building with less than a 3-foot gap between them on Christopher Road in Tangra. However, the residents received messages from the civic headquarters on Friday asking them to wait patiently until Monday before the KMC makes a decision on the fate of the building. A section of residents on Friday complained that they were suffering from an acute water crisis as the power supply to the building was cut off.