Kolkata: 10 rescued after part of 5-storey building collapses on slum

Kolkata: Part of a five-storey, under-construction building collapsed on an adjacent slum around 12.10 am on Monday in the Garden Reach area of Kolkata, police said. “10 injured slum dwellers were rescued and rushed to hospital. Rescue operations are on,” a member of the state disaster management team working at the site said on condition of anonymity.
“Darkness and lack of space required to deploy cranes is posing a problem,” a fire services official said on condition of anonymity. Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal rushed to the spot around 1.40 am but did not talk to the media.
The congested area is in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) civic ward No 134 which is part of the Kolkata Port assembly constituency held by the city mayor and urban development minister Firhad Hakim since 2011.
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Local residents alleged before the media that the damaged building was being illegally constructed because KMC rules do not allow the construction of five-storey structures on narrow lanes. The lane leading to the construction site is no more than three feet wide, they alleged.
The slum dwellers said the construction started around two years ago. The residents, most of whom belong to the Muslim community, pointed at several similar buildings in the area.
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With Lok Sabha elections round the cover, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted the Trinamool Congress government.
“A 5-storey building (illegally constructed) has collapsed at Hazari Mollah Bagan; Garden Reach; Metiabruz, KMC Ward No. 134. This particular area falls under the so called ‘citadel’ of Hon’ble Mayor of Kolkata and Municipal Affairs Minister. I urge @chief_west, Secretary @HomeBengal, @CPKolkata to immediately involve West Bengal State Disaster Management Team for immediate rescue & relief,” leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) around 1.20 am.
No government official was available for comment till 2.30 am.
Till the 2011 assembly elections, in which the TMC overthrew the Left Front government, the constituency was called Garden Reach.