Mayor flags two ‘sensitive’ boroughs with illegal buildings where engineers face resistance
Telegraph | 3 February 2025
The mayor of Calcutta on Saturday identified two boroughs as “sensitive” that had many illegal buildings and engineers frequently faced resistance in acting on them.
The two boroughs are XV (Garden Reach) and VII (Park Street-Topsia-Tiljala).
The municipal commissioner, who was also present in the meeting, offered to “coordinate” with police in case any engineer faced trouble in pulling down a building.
“Boroughs XV and VII are sensitive areas. I know you work with a lot of difficulty,” mayor Firhad Hakim told engineers of the building department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Saturday.
The mayor was meeting all engineers of the KMC’s building department, across all ranks, at the council chamber in the KMC headquarters.
An illegal under-construction building collapsed in Garden Reach’s Azhar Mollah Bagan — part of Borough XV — in March last year, killing 13 people. The neighbourhood had multiple illegal buildings, KMC engineers and residents of the area had said then.
On Thursday, a demolition squad of the KMC had to come back from Tangra’s Christopher Road — part of Borough VII — when residents of the area and people who had booked flats in an under-construction “illegal” building resisted its demolition.
Hakim raised the topic and lauded the engineers for going back again on Friday. “I watched on TV how you were abused and harassed, but you went back again the next day and started the demolition work. I am proud of you,” he told the engineers.
Two buildings on Christopher Road in Tangra have tilted towards each other. One of them, a five-storeyed light green structure, has tilted more. The other, an under-construction six-storeyed white building, is fairly erect.
A structural engineer hired by the KMC has suggested that the structure under construction be pulled down first to determine whether the other can be retained.
Hakim told the engineers that he knew how they were attacked with bamboo poles in at least one place, yet they did not budge. “Keep visiting the roads and make entries in the e-logbook,” he said.
The e-logbook is a system created by the KMC after the collapse of the Garden Reach building.
Sub-assistant engineers are supposed to visit all roads in their wards to check if any under-construction building was coming up without permission from the civic body.
Engineers said that scores of notices were served in each borough following the inspections.
Municipal commissioner Dhaval Jain, who spoke after the mayor, offered to “coordinate” with the police. Demolition work is executed in the presence of the police.
“If you have problems accessing some places, please come to me. My doors are always open. I will coordinate with the police but you have to visit all roads,” Jain told the meeting.
Without naming the wards, Jain said there were four wards — out of 144 — where the e-logbook entry was still in single digits. He asked the engineers to buck up.