The two-storey building on Ahiritola Street that partially collapsed on Wednesday morning, resulting in two deaths, had been declared ‘dangerous’ nine years ago but little had been done since to get it vacated and repaired.
According to Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s records, there are at least 3,000 buildings in the city that are ‘dangerous’. Around a hundred of them are in “extremely distressed condition”, an official said.
After every death resulting from the collapse of such a building, more stickers bearing the word ‘Dangerous’ are pasted on the remaining buildings and police launch campaigns over loudhailers urging residents to move out.
Most of the dangerous buildings are in north and central Kolkata and they are mainly occupied by tenants.
While tagging a building ‘dangerous’, the KMC serves a notice on the owner, which is also a permission to start repairs.
As for the Ahiritola building, the police said they had not been able to contact the owner till Wednesday evening.
“The notice for all such buildings mention that the portions that are irreparable should be pulled down and rest repaired,” a civic official said.
The repairs and demolition have to be done under the supervision of an empanelled structural engineer. The KMC website carries a list of empanelled structural engineers and their phone numbers. One can also collect the list from the building department of the KMC.
Sources in the civic body, however, said the owners of most of the dilapidated buildings choose to look the other way. Upkeep is expensive because the rent the tenants pay is quite low.
“These crumbling buildings usually have multiple tenants who pay a meagre sum as rent. The owners do not want to undertake any repairs as the rent they get does not cover the cost they will incur for the repairs. We cannot force anyone to vacate a house. Ahead of Cyclone Yaas in May, the police and our staff repeatedly appealed to the people living in dangerous buildings to move out, but most of them refused. They fear they will be evicted from their homes if they move out once,” said a civic engineer.
The police pleaded helplessness. “We can only request them (the occupants) to vacate a dangerous building. We are not empowered to use force,” said an officer at Lalbazar.
Firhad Hakim, the chairperson of the KMC’s board of administrators, visited Ahiritola on Wednesday morning. He cited a change in the KMC building rules that was introduced a couple of years ago to facilitate the demolition of crumbling structures and raise new buildings in their place.
“We are giving relaxations to the owners of old buildings so the crumbling structures are demolished and new ones come up in their place,” Hakim said.
The KMC has a provision in its building rules — Section 142 — that allows old buildings with multiple tenants to build additional space if they construct a new structure on the plot.