10 Dead As Five-storey Under-construction Building Collapses in Kolkata, CM Assures Strict Action

A five-story under-construction building collapsed in Kolkata’s Garden Reach area on Sunday night leaving ten people dead. A part of the five-storey building collapsed on the adjacent slum in Hazari Mollah Bagan in the Garden Reach area around midnight. A search operation is underway to find more survivors who may be trapped under the ruins.

“An under-construction building collapsed in the Garden Reach area late on Sunday night. We have rescued a few people. The rescue operation is still going on,” a police official was quoted by NDTV as saying.

NDRF sources said that about 20 people have been rescued with the help of police and locals so far.

Quoting locals, who were the first responders on the scene, an NDTV report said huge chunks of concrete fell from the building on nearby shanties before it collapsed.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal visited the spot at around 1:40 am and took stock of the rescue operation.

The said 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.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the building collapse site at Azan Molla Lane in the city’s western periphery and assured locals of stern action against illegal construction.

Mayor Firhad Hakim announced a compensation of Rs 5 Lakh for the family of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh for the injured. “I have spoken to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and we will give Rs five lakh to the next of kin of each deceased person and Rs one lakh to each injured person,” Hakim was quoted by PTI as saying.

“Sad to learn about the house collapse disaster of an under-construction building in the Garden Reach area of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Our Mayor, Fire Minister, Secretaries and Commissioner of Police, civic, police, fire and disaster management officers and teams (including NDRF, KMC and KP teams) have been on site throughout the night to mitigate the disaster. We shall provide compensation for the next of kin of the deceased and for the injured persons. We stand by the distressed families and rescue operations shall continue,” the TMC supremo wrote in an X post.

“This is illegal construction. I will urge the administration to take strict action against those involved in illegal construction. When this construction was going on, those involved should have been more vigilant,” she said.

West Bengal BJP president leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly, Suvendu Adhikari shared pictures from the collapse site and slammed the ruling TMC government over the incident.

“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,” Adhikari wrote on X.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee also reacted to the incident and stressed that the matter “should not be politicised”.

“The Opposition leaders are raising various questions in this regard, for them, I would say that politics can wait. We can do politics later, but at the moment we should focus on rescuing the people who are stuck. We hope that such incidents are not repeated. All institutions should work in tandem,” the AITC national general secretary said.