Above ground zero, Bowbazar turns protest zone over 6-yr displacement
Times of India | 23 August 2025
Kolkata: At 4.45 pm on Friday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first Esplanade-Sealdah metro train and it glided through the tunnel below Bowbazar, there were cheers, waving of the Tricolour, and a sense of a historic milestone underground. But above ground, on Durga Pituri Lane, where homes once stood and housed families, no one was clapping. Several residents who were displaced after the 2019 subsidence staged a protest on BB Ganguly Street on Friday evening.
On the night of Aug 31, 2019, over 400 residents were forced to vacate their homes as the ground caved in during the construction of the East-West metro tunnel between Sealdah and Esplanade. Many of these residents are yet to return home and are still lodged in rented accommodation. "We were told we could return home in two years. But six years have passed. The project is complete but we have not got back our homes. This shows the priority of the authorities," said Sunita Singh, a displaced resident. "Many of us could not even retrieve the deed of our homes, our valuables and other documents. It has been six years of uncertainty," said Anita Dutta, another resident. | Gold Rates Today in Kolkata | Silver Rates Today in KolkataAuthorities say permanent homes are being built and compensation has been disbursed to many families. Gita Dey (64) looked down at the fenced-off site from the balcony of a relative's house off BB Ganguly Street on Friday. "I know everyone is excited. But for us, it is another reminder of what we have lost. The train will ferry thousands, but many of us are still waiting for our journey back home," she said. Several others who were forced out of their homes six years ago recalled the night they fled when walls cracked. The sense of community that was once a binding factor in the neighbourhoods of Durga Pituri Lane and Shyakrapara has scattered with them.
"Close to 40 people have passed away in the last few years while away from their family homes," said Sanjoy Sen, a displaced resident and secretary of the Bowbazar Mati-o-Manab Kalyan Samity, an association of displaced residents. A row of tin barricades guards empty plots that were once two- and three-storey houses. Now, weeds have grown where courtyards used to be.
"We understand the metro is essential. Progress has to happen. But for us, it has come at the cost of losing our roots. The metro will carry thousands, but it has left hundreds of us without a roof over our heads," said Jayanta Seal, one of the displaced residents.