Portions of two buildings in central and northeastern Kolkata, both declared unsafe by the civic body, collapsed on Monday. No one was injured.
In yet another incident, a portion of a roof of a single-storey building on Rakhal Das Auddy Road in south Kolkata's Chetla collapsed around 9am on Monday. No one was injured.
Police cordoned off the areas surrounding the buildings in Burrabazar’s Posta and Narkeldanga, fearing further collapse.
A portion of a balcony of a four-storey building on Cotton Street in Posta collapsed early on Monday. Residents of the area said the house had been in a dilapidated state and not been repaired for years.
Cops and firemen rescued a family from the house before civic engineers began demolishing a part of the structure to prevent any further collapse.
“We have decided to demolish this building since it poses a grave risk to residents of the area,” said a senior engineer of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Civic officials said Cotton Street, a buzzing trade hub, is dotted with dilapidated buildings.
On September 30, a portion of the boundary wall of a three-storey dilapidated building on the road had collapsed. No one was injured.
Within hours of the balcony collapse on Cotton Street, a portion of a double-storey building on Jaynarayan Tarka Panchhanan Lane in Narkeldanga caved in. The area around the building was immediately cordoned off and civic engineers moved in to remove the debris.
A KMC official said the Cotton Street and Narkeldanga buildings were declared unsafe.
KMC records reveal there were at least 3,000 “dangerous” buildings that needed to be pulled down or repaired immediately. Around 1,000 are in “extremely distressed” state.