The fate of the tilted five-storey building in Tangra that has families living in it for over a year will depend on a report to be submitted by a structural engineer on Monday, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday.

The other tilted building, the one under construction and which was served a notice in August, will be pulled down, he said.

Two buildings on Tangra’s Christopher Road have tilted dangerously towards each other. One of the buildings, a five-storey structure with light green exterior paint, has families living there for over a year. The other, a six-storey structure, is being constructed for close to a year.

“A structural engineer has examined the building. The engineer will submit a final report on Monday. A decision on what to do will be taken after that,” Hakim said on Friday. “People have been living in the building for years.”

Speaking about the under-construction building, the mayor said the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had issued a notice to its owner in August.

“We have issued a notice to the (under-construction) building under Section 401 (of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act 1980). Since we had already served a notice, we will demolish the structure,” he said.

The under-construction building was being erected without any permit from the KMC, civic body officials said.

Sources in the civic body said notices under Section 401 are issued to buildings
under construction that don’t have any KMC-approved plan. “The notice asks the owner to stop work immediately,” he said.

Hakim said the KMC lodged a complaint with Tangra police station after issuing the notice.

“We cannot pull down a structure without conducting a hearing. We cannot act arbitrarily without listening to the other side,” he said.

The furore over the two tilted buildings in Tangra broke out a week after some of the pillars of a five-storey structure in Vidyasagar Colony, near Tollygunge, crumbled and the structure leaned precariously.

Less than a year ago, 13 people died after an illegal under-construction building collapsed in Garden Reach’s Azhar Mollah Bagan.

Several residents of Tangra have questioned the role of the KMC asking how the civic body could fail to spot an illegal structure coming up for a year.

On Friday, Hakim said constructing buildings without the KMC’s approval has become a tradition. “It has happened always. We are trying to stop this. I admit that we have been late. But better late than never,” he said.

KMC engineers, he said, now go around wards to spot illegal structures. “The propensity to build illegal structures has come down. Engineers have duty rosters on ward inspection. If they don’t (go around the wards to spot illegal buildings), they will lose their jobs,” he said.