Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday said 30 buildings in Kolkata are currently tilted, with 90 percent of these cases attributed to “faulty engineering”.
Hakim’s remarks came in the backdrop of an under-construction building in Tangra leaning towards an adjacent structure on Wednesday, prompting evacuations and a “dangerous building” notice.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will conduct a structural stability test to determine the extent of the damage, officials said.
On Friday morning, local people noticed that a four-storey flat building on Topsia’s Loknath Bose Garden Road had tilted. They claim that the house was built seven to eight years ago and pointed fingers at the lacunae of the civic body. Councillor of local ward number 59 Jolly Bose visited the house and spoke to the residents on Friday morning. “If you have any difficulties, we are there,” she said.
Kaushik Das, a local resident, said, “There are two flats side by side along the narrow road. There is no space between the two houses. A four-storey house has been allowed (to come up there).”
On Thursday morning, the locals noticed that an apartment in Netajipalli of Jagatpur in ward no 23 of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation had collapsed. Local people complained that the building was constructed by “filling up a pond”. It had been seen that the building was gradually leaning towards the building beside it.
In the Tangra incident, no one was living in the building as it was under construction, but the masons had to be evacuated. While no injuries were reported, panic spread among residents of neighbouring high-rise buildings.
Before that, an apartment collapsed in ward number 99 of Baghajatin on January 14. In view of these incidents, the building department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has come under scrutiny. However, when Hakim was asked about this, he said, “Shall the municipal corporation stand with a bamboo and erect it?”
The incidents have raised serious concerns about the safety of buildings in the city. Experts point to a lack of proper piling work and inadequate soil testing as the major contributing factors behind the structural failures.
Meanwhile, Hakim has directed the issuance of a show-cause notice to the licensed building surveyor involved in the Tangra incident.