Hammers on an under-construction building brought the residents of the adjacent building under the open sky in scorching heat this morning.

A portion of the common wall between two buildings, while being demolished caused wide cracks and partial collapse of some parts of the structure, leaving the residents aghast and in panic.

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Occupants of 6/1 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane in Bowbazar were busy doing their daily chores when suddenly they felt tremors and vibrations. Before they could even realize what had happened, portions of their building at 7 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane started to collapse with chunks coming down crashing. Having witnessed three mishaps of building collapse earlier in the area, the residents rushed out of the house swiftly to save their life.

“I was cooking when I heard a loud sound outside. I rushed out leaving the food and saw that the entire house was covered with clouds of dust,” said an occupant of the house. “One of the walls of the two-storey building came crashing down and a large portion of the house collapsed,” added the woman. “There have been wide cracks on the walls of our house,” said another resident.

Local residents informed that the under-construction building at 6/1 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane had a common wall with the adjacent structure at 7 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane. The owners had given the plot at 6/1 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane to a promoter for developing it. The residents of 7 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane claimed to have repeatedly informed the developer’s representatives, the local police and the councillor about the matter. The local residents alleged that the developer had not taken any measures for the safety of the occupants of the adjacent house.

“Despite asking the labourers to work carefully, they would not pay any heed to us,” alleged one of the occupants.

A meeting between the residents, police and the developer’s representatives was also held today. The councillor also offered rehabilitation to the affected families but the occupants refused to vacate their houses.

According to the local councillor, Biswarup Dey, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation had sanctioned the plan under rules 142. “The mishap occurred when the common wall was being pulled down,” informed Mr Dey. As pointed out by the councillor, the building at 7 Ramkanai Adhikari Lane was also very old and not properly maintained. The councillor had even urged the developer’s representatives to carry out the construction work carefully as the buildings in the area were built very close to each other and were centuries old. As pointed out by Mr Dey, there are guidelines of the KMC for reconstruction of a building but there are no specific standard operating procedures for demolition.

As informed by mayor Firhad Hakim, the buildings were old and were one earlier. “Later, it had been separated and one part of it was being demolished when the common wall was damaged. The residents had been intimated about it before. Our building department is looking into the matter,” informed Mr Hakim. The mayor underscored that the civic body had nothing much to do during demolition of a building as was the case in Bowbazar today.