A fire destroyed roadside eateries and hookah bars, which were allegedly operating illegally outside the Hiland Woods housing complex, a five-minute drive from Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, early on Thursday.
An official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) said the gutted structures, made of bamboo, wood and plastic, did not have any licence to operate.
The structures, which came up a few years back, used to stay open till the morning, residents of the locality said. Many of them double as hookah bars.
Many such makeshift eateries, which use LPG cylinders or kerosene stoves to cook, have come up in all three action areas of New Town. Residents said most of them do not have any fire-fighting system, though they are made of inflammable items like wood, bamboo and plastic.
Residents of Hiland Woods, Akansha Housing Complex and Sunrise Point said they had repeatedly asked police as well as the NKDA to take action against these shops but nothing had been done.
An officer at the Bidhannagar commissionerate said they were aware of the illegal structures but reasoned that it was up to the NKDA to demolish them. “We will certainly cooperate with the New Town authorities if they launch any demolition drive,” he said.
NKDA chairman Debashis Sen said: “All shops on the stretch are illegal. We will send them notices to move out. If they don't, we will take strict action. If necessary, we will carry out an eviction drive,” Sen said.
Samaresh Das of the New Town Forum and News, a residents’ body, said they had alerted the authorities multiple times about the shacks.
“Most of these stay open till early hours. People visiting them smoke hookah on the road. They park their vehicles haphazardly, caring little for their safety as well as others’,” Das said.
When the fire broke out in the shacks on Thursday morning, guards and the fire control team of Hiland Woods deployed their extinguishers to control the flames.
Ritesh Pyne, a resident, said he heard as many as six explosions, possibly from LPG cylinders, after which the flames leapt higher and spread.
A fire official said at least five fire tenders were sent to the spot. “We found remnants of LPG cylinders,” the official said.
Woman stabbed to death in Baguiati
A woman was allegedly stabbed by a friend of her grandson in Baguiati’s Arjunpur on Wednesday.
Saraswati Sarkar was taken to a health centre where doctors declared her dead. Police said the boy had got into an argument with Sarkar following which she got a knife from the kitchen.
The boy managed to snatch the knife from her and allegedly stabbed her. He was produced before a juvenile court in Salt Lake on Thursday that sent him to a home.