A proposal to temporarily shift the BC Roy Market — Bidhan Market to many — to a plot south of Saheed Minar till the construction of the Esplanade Metro station on the Joka-Esplanade corridor (Purple Line) is completed has gained momentum with the state government, police and the defence ministry agreeing to work together.

The development comes a month after the ministry of defence refused permission to shift the market to an upcoming complex above the Esplanade station on the East-West Metro line (Green Line) leaving the Joka-Esplanade corridor in a new limbo.

At a meeting on April 29, senior officials from the state government met their counterparts in RVNL (Rail Vikas Nigam Limited), representatives from the market and the local military authority (LMA) to explore options for shifting the market ahead of constructing the station.

Senior officers of Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, PWD and the forest department were also present at the meeting.

“After exploring several possibilities, everyone unanimously agreed on the option of shifting the market temporarily to a place south of Saheed Minar and rehabilitating the shop owners to their original location after the construction was over,” said a senior officer of the transport department.

“The representative from the local military authority asked the RVNL to submit a written proposal for necessary approval of the ministry of defence (MoD).”

Senior officials in the Eastern Command said a written proposal for the market’s temporary shifting on a piece of land, whose custodian is the army, would help in two ways.

First, it will reduce the time for necessary approval because the MoD would refer the proposal to the local military authority for its observations.

With the Eastern Command already in the loop, thrashing any misgivings about the proposal will be easier.

“Earlier, the RVNL had directly approached MoD in Delhi for permission. The local military authority was in the dark,” said a senior officer of the Eastern Command.

“Now the Eastern Command has been taken into the loop and we have asked for a formal proposal from the RVNL to take it up with the MoD.”

The proposed Esplanade station would be the terminal station of the 16km Joka-Esplanade corridor, which is now functional on an 8km elevated stretch between Joka and Majerhat. The 6km underground section is from Mominpore to Esplanade.

A section of Metro railway officials said without necessary clearance for constructing the Esplanade station of the Purple Line, the Metro link from Joka would have to terminate at Park Street.

The proposal, which was accepted by all present at the meeting, said apart from temporarily shifting the market to a site south of Saheed Minar on Maidan, a state bus stand (L-20) across the market will have to be relocated and traffic will have to be diverted from a stretch of Dufferin Road to facilitate the construction of the Esplanade station.

“We have asked the RVNL to submit a written proposal to the Kolkata police for obtaining necessary traffic clearance during the period of the station’s construction,” a senior police officer overseeing Calcutta’s traffic movement said.

Kaushik Mitra of Metro Railway said: “We are keeping our fingers crossed this time. The necessary clearance should reach us this time. But before that, it would be premature to make any comment at this point.”