Kolkata: The fire that killed at least nine people, including eight Bangladeshis, in a hotel building on Mirza Ghalib Street has cast a fresh shadow over Kolkata’s ‘Mini Bangladesh’ just as the neighbourhood’s tourism-dependent economy was beginning to recover after nearly four years of disruption in two phases, one due to the pandemic and then, the uprising in the neighbouring country.
The tragedy, which has raised questions on fire safety in the congested hotel-and-commercial district, threatens to unsettle the fragile financial revival that began with the return of Bangladeshi tourists after India relaxed visa norms in the beginning of July. Business associations estimate that the cluster, comprising hotels, eateries, retail outlets, travel agencies, foreign exchange kiosks, medical facilities and transport businesses, generated around Rs 3 crore in daily turnover in the hay days.
Md Khurshid, a resident of Pabna in Bangladesh, had on Monday checked into another hotel in the same building, where Shikha Inn was located, for his health-checkup at a private hospital off EM Bypass. After the fire, he shifted to a guest house at Mukundapur. “ A boarder in the next room woke me up but I could not run out as thick smoke had by then filled up the building. There was no fire safety equipment. In the absence of proper ventilation, I breathed with much difficulty. About half-an-hour later, police evacuated us,” Khurshid said. “I returned later with police to collect my belongings, including medical visa and passport. As I heard that very few hotels in this area complied with fire safety norms, my family advised me to shift elsewhere. The agent who facilitated my health check-up arranged for a guesthouse near the hospital.”
With visitors leaving for other places this way would affect businesses in the entire area of Marquis Street, Sudder Street, Free School Street, Collin Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road and the New Market area, said businesspeople, pointed out that the return of tourists from Bangladesh had just about started offering signs of hope. “The fire and the deaths will bring the entire area under the govt’s safety scrutiny. We are aware that most hotels here flout several fire safety norms. This will not augur well for business in the area,” said the owner of another hotel.
The concern underlines the predicament that the neighbourhood faces—struggling businesses are looking for higher occupancy at hotels but the blaze is likely to invite stricter audit, which in turn, will force operators to spend on safety upgrades amid their fragile financial situation. During the downturn, hotels in the area had to reduce operations, restaurants shut or curtailed business, shops struggled with falling sales and transport operators saw a drop in passenger count. Only recently did business owners had begun reopening rooms, restoring inventories and preparing for higher footfall. “But we are yet to come out of bad business days . The entire area is dependent on visitors from Bangladesh,” said an office-bearer of a hotel association on Marquis Street.
Business owners said fewer than 1,000 Bangladeshi visitors were now arriving daily, while the figure used to be 6,000 to 8,000 a day before the disruption. They said they had hoped for a rise in number in winter, the peak season. But operators now feared that wary of the blaze, travellers from Bangladesh, who would otherwise choose the area for affordable hotels, eateries, shops, transport services and other facilities, might look for accommodations elsewhere. “Many tourists will now think twice before booking hotels in this area. After all, nothing is more precious than our lives. From the next time, we will pay a little more but will stay in hotels with proper fire safety,” said Mohammad Assadullah, a visitor from Dhaka.
“The fire again threatens to interrupt that tentative recovery from losses. The immediate concern for Mini Bangladesh is whether visitors will feel confident enough to stay here. Also, the cost and disruption of compliance could further strain businesses that have only just begun to emerge from one of their worst periods in years,” said an eatery owner.