KOLKATA: Evacuation notices have been served to those occupying old and dilapidated structures along the western side of SN Banerjee Road to facilitate tunnelling of the East-West Metro corridor, which is scheduled to start next week.Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the agency implementing the project, has also initiated mitigation measures in some of these buildings to prevent subsidence and cracks.The notice, signed by KMRC managing director AK Nandy, read: “All people doing business inside/or the adjacent area of 1A S N Banerjee Road are hereby requested not to stay at their premisesduring the movement of the west-bound TBM of East-West Metro corridor project from 1am of March 28 to 11pm of March 31.”The last leg of underground tunnelling — the 2.45km Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of the 16.6km East-West Metro corridor — is keeping engineers of KMRC and ITD ITD-Cementation, the company contracted to build the tunnel, on their toes, thanks to the high density of structures that are not only around 100 — or more — years old, but are among the most ill-maintained in Kolkata.In the first phase of evacuation, KMRC will organize hotel stay for nine families comprising around 40 people. Some 30 shops and business establishments will remain closed in a phased manner. A similar exercise was followed when tunnelling was done below Brabourne Road.The shakiest among the buildings is 1A SN Banerjee Road, which Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had condemned years ago, but is still occupied by three offices. The building is falling apart and has been covered up, lest concrete peels off while the TBM passes. Hundreds of pedestrians take this route to and from the Esplanade Metro station or walk to offices and shops located in the congested city centre. Inside the crumbling structure, extensive propping is being done to prevent subsidence. “The iron props holding the ceiling and the walls will remain even after tunnelling since the building is in a bad shape,” said an engineer.Among the other buildings where the temporary evacuation notices were pasted 2 SN Banerjee Road, the heritage Regal Cinema building on 4 SN Banerjee Road and Kolkata’s oldest Mughlai Paratha address, Anadi Cabin (9A Jawaharlal Nehru Road).In all, 675 buildings along the Esplanade-Sealdah alignment are on the TBM’s influence zone (40 metres). KMRC had commissioned a building condition survey (BCS) to check the stability of 224 of these structures and found 86 to be critical and decided to evacuate them in phases.

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