Bulldozers on Wednesday smashed structures that were for many years permanent features on Calcutta’s pavements and thoroughfares.

Many Calcuttans could not remember another instance when bulldozers had been deployed to reclaim public spaces since the 1996 Operation Sunshine, an aborted attempt to free up some of the city’s iconic stretches.

New Market, Bentinck Street, Alipore, Behala, New Town and parts of EM Bypass, near Mani Square and PC Chandra Garden, were some of the places that witnessed the “clean-up drive”.

By 11am on Wednesday, local police stations had alerted the stall owners about the impending crackdown. The message was simple — the stuff that blocked the roads and pavements should be removed before the drive.

The bulldozers and payloaders appeared on some of the roads almost two hours later. Human hands did the machine’s job in some other places, where the obstructions were less daunting than steel and cement structures.

Mini-trucks were parked at every site to transport what remained of the structures.

“The cops came on Tuesday night and told me about the drive. But shifting a stall that has been standing for over 10 years is easier said than done,” said a hawker in Behala. The owner of a makeshift
eatery near the Alipore zoo said he got a notice on Wednesday morning.
What we saw on Wednesday

Alipore

Some 50 stalls that stood on either side of the gates of the zoo, opposite Taj Bengal, were removed on Wednesday afternoon. Most of them — serving everything from hot meals to snacks and soft drinks — had been there for decades.

By the time the bulldozer arrived, most stalls had been cleared of their stuff. That included the refrigerators stacked with beverages
and wooden tables and plastic sheets. The structures were pulled down in the presence of police and KMC officials.

“The drive will continue over the next few days,” said a senior officer of Alipore police station before removing some items seized during the drive. Some of the stall owners, including women, looked visibly distraught. The common refrain — what next?

Behala

More than 50 structures that stood on both flanks of Diamond Harbour Road, mostly between Taratala and Behala police station, were gone by 1.30pm. The remains of multiple such stalls lay on the road. One of
them sold parathas for breakfast, another sold fish for aquariums. A third sold cigarettes, soft drinks and other items.

A couple of such stalls stood right at the gates of the Old Dog Race Course housing complex, at the base of the Taratala flyover. “They had become synonymous with the complex. They would stay open almost 24X7. Even the policemen on night patrol would often stop by late in the night for a cup of tea or a smoke,” said a resident.

Some 200m away, two more such stalls were being wheeled away, by a group each. They were owned by people living in the same locality, the police said.

Bentinck Street

The footpaths along Bentinck Street, between Ganesh Chandra Avenue and Waterloo Street, were dotted with makeshift eateries. By 4pm on Wednesday, the stretch was cleared.

Cycle shops along one of the pavements had encroached almost the entire sidewalk with bicycles. Rows of cycles and plastic sheets for cover were also removed in the afternoon drive.

Teams from Hare Street police station and the KMC launched the clean-up drive in the afternoon, taking onlookers by surprise. Temporary stalls on either side of the road, which leads to the police headquarters in Lalbazar, were cleared of plastic sheet tops.

Wooden tables and other items blocking the footpaths were seized and taken away on small trucks. “Police said they had orders and would not wait to remove the black plastic sheets above and even some of the furniture on the footpath,” said a food stall owner on Bentinck Street.

Apollo

A cluster of around 20 makeshift stalls that occupied a part of the service road along the boundary wall of Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals near Mani Square Mall was the target. Around 3pm, a payloader reached the site and began pulling the structures down.

The shops would sell food items, mainly to the hospital visitors, and several of them used gas cylinders to cook, the police said. Some stall owners moved away as the payloader made its way through the rows of shops, covered on the top with black plastic sheets. After the clean-up, the stretch of the service road along the hospital’s wall looked different with much more space for vehicles.

PC Chandra Garden

Rows of temporary structures alongside the drainage canal near PC Chandra Garden, off EM Bypass, were cleared during a drive on Wednesday afternoon.

“The shops along Basanti Highway posed a threat to those visiting them amid a steady flow of vehicles,” said a senior police officer at Anandapur police station. “The stall owners were told three hours in advance about the drive and they were prepared.”