Jewellers from Bowbazar’s Durga Pituri Lane in central Kolkata, where cracks have appeared in buildings because of East-West Metro work, have moved to rooms in neighbouring areas paying rents many times more than before in a desperate attempt to regain livelihood.
Some of them have taken rooms on rent in Gour Dey Lane, adjacent to Durga Pituri Lane, while others have moved further away and settled for smaller rooms in Banerjee Lane, Chhana Patty and Ramkanai Adhikari Lane.
Close to two dozen jewellers and their 150-odd workers have been forced to move out of their homes and workplaces after subsidence triggered by Metro work led to developments of cracks in a number of buildings in Durga Pituri Lane on May 11.
While displaced residents moved into hotels, the traders began hunting for space to work from after realising that the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), implementing agency of East-West Metro, was not ready with any immediate rehabilitation plan for them.
“Rents have more than doubled following the disaster because landlords have realised there will be a demand for space. Rooms that would earlier come for Rs 2,000 are now being rented out for at least Rs 6,000,” said Santosh Nayek, a jeweller from Durga Pituri Lane.
“What do you do? Some of us are teaming up so we can afford the rent. This is a good season for us as gold prices are taking a dip and orders are pouring in.”
For most jewellers and goldsmiths, it makes business sense to have a workshop close to the jewellery shops in the BB Ganguly Street area as they have been their traditional customers.
“By staying in the jewellery hub of Bowbazar, we can hand orders to showrooms by walking down the street. That will also ensure timely delivery of ornaments, including ones intricately designed,” said a jeweller.
In the jewellery hub, different sets of workers are skilled in different aspects of ornament making, such as plating, cutting, polishing and finishing.
In the workshops dotting the lanes and bylanes of Bowbazar, these workers operate on mutual trust as gold ornaments change hands till they are finally readied and handed to showroom owners.
“An 8ftX10ft room that would earlier be rented out for Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 is now being made available for Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500. For most like us it is about livelihood and ensuring that we retain our customers,” said Paritosh Kar, a jeweller.
“If you stop working, workers will take up assignments for others and start working for another set of goldsmiths.”
Senior KMRC officials said they were yet to decide on rehabilitation of jewellers who were hit by the May 11 accident.
“We will conduct a survey of the existing workshops and find out the number of traders who have a valid trade licence before preparing a plan for them. But that will take time,” said a senior KMRC official.