KOLKATA: Officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) building department are yet to trace the building/ sanction plans of the additional floors of Bagri Market , but owners of establishments on the fourth and fifth floors on Thursday claimed to have in their possesion a sanction plan — duly signed by the civic body — of the floors added to original one-storey market.Kamal Jain, director of Niche Technologies (P) Ltd, which has an office on the fifth floor of Bagri Market, told TOI that a plan for the additional floor was sanctioned on February 11, 1976, for five years and it was subsequently renewed for another five years on March 28, 1981.A section of the KMC building department officials, however, could not confirm whether the civic body had sanctioned construction plans for the fourth and fifth floors. Contradicting the claims made by Jain, a KMC building department official said the civic body’s city architects wing could have issued a sanction only for an alteration and addition for the two floors.“Sanctioning an alternation or additional construction plan does not mean that the civic body had granted permission for the entire floors. We don’t have any evidence to prove that any architectural plans were submitted to the KMC on part of anybody, requesting for sanction for these floors,” said a KMC building department official.According to Jain, based on the sanctioned plan, the construction work for fourth and fifth floors was started in 1982. “There was sanction for the sixth floor as well but as the extended time limit for sanction got over during the construction, the Bagrees stopped developer Parasmal Lodha to do any further work,” he added.Jain also claimed that this was why even some portion of the fifth floor remained incomplete. “Most of the lease holders (on fourth and fifth floors) entered into agreement with the Bagrees and Lodha from 1985 onwards,” he said. As per the document, plan for the additional floors was signed by then deputy city architects Sona Das Basu Roy (DBS 2) and Debi Das Chakraborty and city architect Naresh Roy.According to Jain, there was an agreement dated May 22, 1985, for selling the additional floors between most of the buyers, Parasmal Lodha and the buyers. “Some of the space was sold by the Bagrees while the rest was sold by Lodha,” he added. When contacted, Parasmal Lodha told TOI that it was a legally sanctioned plan for the additional floors. “The plan was initially sanctioned by KMC in 1976 when submitted by the Bagri Estate and then got renewed,” Lodha added.

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