The evacuation of the residents of a couple of buildings in Bowbazar, necessitated by the construction of an emergency-exit shaft of East-West Metro, has been “deferred till further notice”.
“Due to some unavoidable circumstances, the earlier notice for evacuation... in connection with the construction of egress shaft has been deferred till further notice,” said a letter sent to the residents by the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, the executing agency of the project, on Wednesday.
Two buildings, 9 Durga Pithuri Lane and 6 Durga Pithuri Lane, fell in the “influence zone” of the under-construction evacuation shaft.
No one from the KMRC was willing to say what “unavoidable circumstances” meant.
A couple of residents said engineers at the site had told them about a problem in a machine building the shaft.
“I was told that the shifting has been deferred because a machine developed a snag,” said a resident. A KMRC spokesperson said “a technical problem” led to the delay.
“For the time being, there is no need for evacuation,” said V.K. Srivastava, the managing director of the KMRC.
Multiple residents said being told to move out one day and stay back the next day meant a lot of trouble.
“We have to pack the belongings. Our daily schedule gets affected. Everything has to be tweaked. Then, suddenly, you are told that you don’t have to shift,” said Amit Sen, a resident of 9 Durga Pithuri Lane.
Sen, and many others like him, have not unpacked their bags, fearing another sudden prod to move out. The evacuation shaft is the key pending construction before the opening at Durga Pithuri Lane — from where the tunnel boring machines were retrieved — is closed.
The 16.5 km East-West Metro project, which will connect Howrah Maidan and Salt Lake Sector V, is now functional between Sealdahand Sector V.