The high court on Monday asked the Calcutta Municipal Corporation to complete the repairs at Mohammad Ali Park in central Kolkata within three months while hearing a petition demanding reopening of the park, an advocate who appeared for the petitioner said.
The order was issued by the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya. The park has been “closed” since April 2019 after a portion of a wall of a water reservoir under the ground collapsed.
Since the collapse, the Mohammad Ali Park Durga Puja has been held at one corner of the compound that does not have a water reservoir under it.
Prem Chand Agarwal, a life member of the Mohammad Ali Park Durga Puja committee, had filed the petition. Agarwal told The Telegraph this was the only park for residents of a large area and its closure has left them with no option but to walk on the road for their daily exercise or stop exercising altogether.
“The park had a kids’ corner and many children played there. Youths played cricket and football on the ground,” he said.
Rabi Sankar Chattopadhyay, an advocate for the petitioner, said they told the court that though the KMC has been saying the park is closed, many people are still entering the compound and playing.
“What is the logic of keeping the park closed on the grounds that repairs are pending while people are going inside and playing?” he said.
“A disaster can happen any day. The KMC must complete the repairs immediately.”
Advocate and former mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, too, appeared for the petitioner.
“The bench asked the KMC to complete its work within three months,” he said after the hearing.
Sources in the KMC said there is a functional reservoir of 3 million gallon capacity under the park. It supplies water to large parts of central Kolkata.
An official said it is not possible to shut down the reservoir without building an alternative reservoir to store potable water.
“We have plans to build a water reservoir of equal capacity. Once that is ready, water from the Tallah tank will be sent there and the reservoir under Mohammad Ali Park will be shut for repairs,” said the official.
But the construction of the alternative reservoir is yet to begin. The tender inviting bids for construction has not been floated yet, said another official.
Soon after the collapse of the reservoir wall, the KMC had asked a team of engineering professors from Jadavpur University to assess the state of the reservoir. The team found cracks inside the reservoir and advised repairs.