Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) today started pulling down an old dilapidated building on Nilmoni Mitra Street in north Kolkata. The civic authorities had given several notices to the owners to repair the structure and after getting no response from them, declared it dilapidated and a notice board was put up in front of the house.

The civic authorities have decided to pull down all dilapidated structures that are posing threat to human habitation and to animals, before monsoon. There are around 3,000 dilapidated structures in the city and out of these around 2,000 have been declared as dangerous and dilapidated.

The structure that is being pulled down is more than a century old. It has not been maintained for the past 50 years and is unoccupied. A senior official of the buildings department of KMC said as the buildings have not been repaired for many years, rain water pipes have been clogged. During monsoon, the water gets accumulated on the roof putting pressure on the structure.

As the pillars have not been repaired, they fail to withstand the additional weight and collapse. He said every year 15 to 20 people die as portions of the houses where they live collapse. The tenants and the owners refuse to vacate the house despite repeated requests by the KMC. The official said the owners of many such centuriesold buildings have accepted the KMC proposal to pull down the old structure to make room for new ones with adequate rehabilitation for the tenants.

He said, for individuals it is difficult to maintain the old structure as the maintenance cost is high and most of the old structures are occupied by tenants. The tenants in many cases pay less than Rs 100 per month, forcing the owners not to maintain the buildings. He said the old house of Sir Rajen Mukherjee on Harrington Street has been maintained as the civic authorities had allowed the owner to set up buildings in the open area.

He said the house of Pashupati Bose in north Kolkata and Raja Subodh Mullick in Central Kolkata, both of whom have been declared as heritage structures are in real bad shape and may collapse any day. He said neither the Centre nor the state can repair private heritage structures as the laws do not permit and most of the old buildings are litigated.