However, resistance offered by local traders forced Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials to only pull down the “unsafe portions”, as pointed out by the traders’ association.
“We will not allow KMC to conduct demolition in the market building. We will guide their team and monitor the demolition task,” said Samar Choudhury, secretary of Nandaram Market Tenants and Traders Welfare Association.
“We will put up a tough resistance if any portion of the Nandaram Market is touched without our consent,” he warned.
The demolition work began around 11 am. The workers were able to pull down only a section of a wall on the 11th floor of the Market from where the slab had fallen, seriously injuring a labourer on February 3.
Neither the civic body nor Kolkata police adopted any safety measure as they conducted with the demolition work. Traffic was not diverted and large chunks of cement and bricks continued to litter the road.
As the taders’ association members dictated the demolition team what and where to pull down, the Kolkata police alongwith Krishna Kumar Bhattacharya — the executive engineer of borough 5 — remained mute spectators.
Not only this, senior officials of KMC’s buildings department were nowhere to be seen at the demolition site. KMC has recently declared the structure of the building unsafe and the slab falling expedited the demolition drive.
The traders’ association, however, is not ready to accept the KMC’s contention and wants a study of the building’s robustness from Jadavpur University.
“We will take three months to pull down the top seven floors of the Nandaram Market,” said a source in KMC’s buildings department.