KOLKATA: A 90-year-old man, his wife and their daughter died when the dilapidated building in which they were living collapsed in Burrabazar in central Kolkata on Tuesday.
Taraprasanna Saha (94), his wife Shobharani Saha (84) and daughter Beauty Saha (52) lived as tenants on the ground floor of the four-storeyed building that was deemed dangerous and unfit for residence.
According to sources, the top three floors of the building collapsed on the ground floor at around 11 am Tuesday.
Local people pulled out the trapped family and rushed them to a local hospital from where they were shifted to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. While Taraprasanna was declared brought dead, Shobharani and Beauty succumbed to injuries later.
Prominent as a wholesale market, Burrabazar is subject to frequent fires and building collapses. Most of the buildings are more than a century old. The narrow alleys and lack of space between buildings enables fires to spread quickly and makes rescue operations difficult.
Although the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has deemed several of these buildings as dangerous to live in, many migrants are forced to live there due to the cheaper rents. While Marwaris run most of the wholesale businesses in Burrabazar, Biharis work as manual labourers, loading and unloading goods.
Merchants have resisted the West Bengal government’s plans to shift the wholesale market from Burrabazar to the outskirts of the city. The state government has embarked on a Mission 2025 plan for revamping infrastructure in the city and shifting the Burrabazar wholesale market to the fast-growing New Town on the northeastern fringe of Kolkata.