KOLKATA: Thirty more houses developed deep cracks in Kolkata’s Bowbazar area in the past 24 hours following cave-ins after tunnelling for East-West Metro hit a water pocket five days ago.
The total number of houses damaged has gone up to more than 80 and over 600 people have been evacuated so far. A minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet is among the affected residents.
Initially, the houses located at Durga Pituri Lane and Syakrapara Lane off BB Ganguly Street in central Kolkata suffered damages, inspection below and above the ground revealed on Friday that houses on adjoining Hidaram Banerjee Lane, Gaur Dey Lane and BB Ganguly Street could also be in danger.
Residents of Bowbazar, the city’s gold jewellery manufacturing hub, became homeless overnight.
The Metro authorities arranged accommodation for them in several hotels in central Kolkata.
The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) authorities will start disbursing Rs 5 lakh compensation for each family from Monday.
“In the first phase, 80 families will be given the compensation.” said a Metro official. Foreign experts, who were flown in by KMRC, have told engineers that the entire area should be evacuated for the sake of public safety.