Known as Sutanuti Hat before the British came, Marwaris used to control the Burrabazar market in north Kolkata during the 18th-19th century.
Today, there are hundreds of old buildings, mostly located in the densely populated market, which do not have legal sanction. However, livelihood issues and political compulsions have stopped their demolition.
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In January 2008, a fire at Tripal Patty engulfed nearly 4,000 shops and a portion of the adjacent Nandaram Market. Only six of the 13 floors of the market are legal. In 1988, Calcutta High Court had declared these additions illegal.
Nearly six years after the fire, it is business as usual in the six floors of the building.
If the traders' body has its way, 500 of the 900 closed godowns may soon become functional. Decks have been cleared by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to open the 13 floors of the market, provided the fire department gives its no-objection certificate.
"There is no question of demolition. Experts from Jadavpur University did a stability check, and said the building only needed minor repairs," said Tapas Mukherjee, district secretary, the Federation of Trade Organisation.
Recently, a fire broke out in a four-storey 4B Jackson Lane building in Burrabazar. "Fire can break out at any place, even in our houses. That is no reason to demolish the buildings," said Mukherjee.
Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee refused to comment on the action taken by the government to control fires here.
"Burrabazar was congested from the beginning. Most of the buildings here came up before the laws were enacted. While there was hardly any space for constructing new buildings, people kept on adding floors," said Ashish Acharjee, an architect and heritage conservation consultant with the KMC and West Bengal Heritage Commission.
Easier said than done
In May 2012, Hatibagan Market was significantly destroyed by a fire. The government decided to reconstruct the market on the lines of the proposed renovation plan for College Street Market.
The proposal had been shelved under pressure from the traders' body. "The corporation was demolishing the entire Hatibagan Market to build a new one. We vehemently resisted the idea, taking cue from the slow progress of the renovation project of the College Street market," said Narayan Chandra Basak, organising secretary of the North Kolkata Traders' Association.