The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has allocated over Rs 9 lakh for security measures at the College Street market, which has been lying in a shambolic condition for over a decade.
The civic body put up posters outside the market last week announcing that the market belonged to the KMC. This came a month after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s principal bench in Delhi upheld a decision by the KMC to terminate the agreement with Bengal Shelter Housing Development Limited, the builder hired in 2006 to build a new market building.
Amiruddin (Bobby), the mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s market department, said that they intend to put up gates and also rein in the entry of unwanted vehicles into the parking area at the northern end of the market buildiOne o
One of the entrances to the market.
“We have allocated Rs 9,06,334. Now that we have custody of the market, we will first install gates to secure the premises. We will also put in some checks outside the open area where vehicles are now parked. It will reserved for visitors to the market and the traders who own shops in the market,” said Amiruddin.
At the moment, several goods vehicles that ferry goods to a nearby fruit market and other shops along the road remain parked there, he said. “This will be stopped,” he added.
A visit to the market last week showed that the building spread over 4 acres (13 bighas) was nowhere near completion. The ground floor and the first floor have stores and shops and the floors above are lying unused. The plastered walls are without any coat of paint.
Before it was pulled down, College Street market was a single-storey building, said a member of the traders’ association of the market. It was then converted into a seven-storey building, but all floors above the first two floors are lying sealed and incomplete.
The exterior walls of the market, seen from College Street, are without any paint. The way to the market from the road is dusty and tarpaulin sheets hang overhead. Multiple tin sheets cover many portions of the market’s exteriors making those parts look like
shacks.
“Would any new customer come into such a market?” asked a trader.
The old market building had been pulled down barring its gate, which still stands. The gate is called the “central tower” of the market and is listed as a Grade I structure in the Graded List of Heritage Buildings published by the KMC in 2009.
The central tower too lies unpainted and tin sheets block the way through it.
Subasish Deb, the secretary of College Street Market Byaboshayee Samity, said that fixing the issue of parking was a demand from the traders for long. “This parking should be for the traders of the market and their customers. It is now filled with cars and vehicles from outside,” he said.
Deb said many of the nine gates of the market were in poor condition.
A KMC official told Metro that the civic body has also filed a caveat — a special leave petition — in the Supreme Court, apprehending that Bengal Shelter could challenge the appellate tribunal’s order.
“We have pleaded that no stay order on the appellate tribunal’s order is passed without hearing us,” said the official.