Over six months after a number of houses collapsed or developed cracks in central Kolkata’s Bowbazar area during the tunnel boring work for the Kolkata East West Metro corridor, there was fresh anxiety on Thursday as locals complained of cracks reappearing in 23 dwellings of the same locality.
With KMRCL — the implementing agency of the project — resuming the tunnel boring work last month, anxiety has been writ large on the faces of the local residents, many of whom had to leave their homes and put up in lodges and hotels for days leaving all their belongings behind after the boring machine had hit an aquifer.
Now, as the boring machine Urbi was busy doing the tunnelling work from central avenue to Sealdah, inhabitants of Gour Dey Lane claimed at least 23 houses have developed fresh cracks.
The KMRCL officials, however, claimed there was no cause for worry as all precautions have been taken to prevent any repetition of last year’s mayhem.
Several hundred people were forced to evacuate their residences and shops last September after more than 50 buildings developed cracks — some of them later collapsing — apparently due to the tunnelling work.
The first phase of the East West Metro corridor connecting the city’s tech hub of Salt Lake Sector 5 to the soccer venue Yuva Bharati Krirangan was inaugurated last month.
The East West Metro Railway — a part of which when fully commissioned would constitute India’s first under-river train line — has started commercial operation over a truncated 4.88 kilometer stretch linking six overground stations.
According to railway officials, the entire stretch from Sector 5 to Howrah Maidan is likely to be completed in two years, with over Rs 6,500 crore already spent on the project.
The project is technologically analogous to the Eurostar (connecting Paris and London) and bridges the twin cities of Howrah and Kolkata.
It has been planned to drastically cut down travel cost and time, almost by an hour and a half.
Out of the total 16.60 km, 5.8 km is an elevated corridor and 10.8 km will run underground. The 520-metre twin tunnels under the river are part of the underground stretch.