Bowbazar residents hit by metro fiasco need to claim compensation in a week

Application forms for claiming compensation are being distributed among those affected by the damage caused to the 12 buildings in Bowbazar last week during work in an E-W metro tunnel, official said

Application forms for claiming compensation are being distributed among those affected by the damage caused to the 12 buildings in Bowbazar here last week during work in an East-West Metro tunnel, a senior official said.

The forms will have to be filled up and submitted within a week, following which the claims will be verified by the police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the official of the project's executing agency, KMRC, stated.

At least 12 houses at Madan Dutta Lane of Bowbazar developed cracks on Friday morning in central Kolkata following water seepage during work in the tunnel, the third such incident in a little over three years.

 

The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) had said that efforts will be made for disbursal of monetary compensation within 15 days.

So far, 183 people have been shifted to hotels from the affected buildings.

"The compensation claim forms will have to be submitted within a week, following which verification will be done in another seven days," the official said.

Meanwhile, a team of BJP councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, including Meena Devi Purohit, Sajal Ghosh and Vijay Ojha, visited the Madan Dutta Lane during the day.

They interacted with some of the affected shop owners and local residents.

"We will speak to Metro authorities for a permanent solution to these uncertainties being faced by the residents and business owners of the area," Purohit told reporters after the visit.

A camp, with representatives of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, KMRC and police, has also been set up to help the affected people.

Madan Dutta Lane is situated near Durga Pituri Lane, where buildings were damaged on two occasions earlier during tunnelling work.

On August 31, 2019, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) had hit an aquifer leading to severe ground subsidence and collapse of several buildings in Bowbazar, causing delay in the completion of the project.

At least three houses were damaged again in May this year owing to ground subsidence caused by water seepage during work for joining the tunnels one coming from the Sealdah side and the other from Esplanade side.

The East-West Metro corridor connecting Howrah Maidan and Sector V in Salt Lake is currently partially operational -- between Sector V station and Sealdah.

Of the 16.6 km length of East-West Metro, underground corridor constitutes 10.8 km -- between Howrah and Phoolbagan -- with a portion of the tunnel passing below the Hooghly river, while the rest is elevated corridor, according to the KMRC official.