Cracks appeared in multiple buildings in Bowbazar’s Durga Pituri Lane, close to the route of the ongoing East-West Metro project, forcing around 30 families to vacate their homes on Wednesday night, police said.
A police officer said the 30-odd families from at least eight buildings were taken to an orphanage in the neighbourhood. “They will later be shifted to four hotels,” the officer said.
In 2019, more than 250 people had to be evacuated from 13 buildings in Bowbazar after cracks appeared on the walls under the impact of the boring of the East-West tunnel.
The police said Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) officials reached the spot on Wednesday night to inspect the houses and assess the damage.
A KMRC official said the reason for the cracks was “yet unknown” till midnight. A team of engineers are at the spot, he said.
He said “four houses were affected”, none of them far from the site from where the tunnel-boring machine was retrieved last year. “All of them happen to be near the periphery of the site from where the machines were dragged out,” said the official.
The agency was trying to relocate the people whose homes have been affected, he said.
The official said he came to know about the cracks after 10pm. “I do not know when the cracks started appearing,” he said.
People who suddenly found themselves homeless demanded that the East-West work, on the verge of completion, be stopped immediately.
“Our houses were once damaged in 2019. Now again cracks have appeared. Cracks appeared around 5.30pm and they started aggravating with time. Now concrete chunks are coming off,” said a resident.