Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s building department will write to the civic body’s market department asking them to pull down or repair a dilapidated portion of the Park Circus market, an official said on Saturday.
The civic authorities have also sought a meeting with traders at the Park Circus market on Tuesday to discuss possible shifting of traders from the western wing so it could be pulled down before reconstruction.
A senior KMC engineer said the western wing was beyond repair and had to be demolished and reconstructed.
“We will serve a notice to our market department. This is a formality as the market department is in charge of the trade hub and is responsible for its maintenance,” the engineer said.
“The same notice under Section 411(1) of the KMC Act, 1980, will also be served to the traders. When we send any notice to the owner of a dilapidated structure, we send it to the tenants, too.”
The section says that if a wall or a building is “in a ruinous state, or likely to fall, or to be in any way dangerous”, the municipal commissioner “shall forthwith cause a written notice to be served on the owner and to be put on some conspicuous part of the wall or building or served on the occupier, if any, of the building requiring such owner or occupier forthwith to demolish, repair or secure such wall, building or thing.”
A 56-year-old stall owner suffered injuries after a chunk of concrete fell on him near shop number 13 in B Block of the market around 8.30am on Monday.
A small portion of the cornice, measuring 1ftX1.5ft, of the second floor of the market fell on him when he was opening his shop.
The three-storey market has about 450 traders. “The portion that will be pulled down first has close to 80 traders,” said Sheikh Fazal Yousuf, a member of the traders’ association of the market.
“The dilapidated portion has grocery, cloth, paper and ice stores, among others. This is an old market. The stall I run was owned by my grandfather.”
He said KMC officials had told the traders that the market would be pulled down in phases.
Several shop owners have hung tarpaulin sheets overhead to keep themselves and their customers safe from falling concrete pieces.
Amiruddin (Bobby), mayoral council member in charge of markets, said the western wing “was beyond repair”.
“We had locked the market about three years back and asked traders to come to us so the building could be repaired. But nothing much happened. The traders have to realise that any accident can happen any day because of the condition of the market. They must cooperate with us to rebuild the market,” he said.