Flat buyers of a tilting under-construction building at Kolkata’s Tangra area protest against demolition efforts by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
Owners of the ‘tilted’ under-construction building at Kolkata’s Tangra area vehemently opposed demolition attempts by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Thursday (January 30, 2025), claiming they were not given any official demolition order from the civic body.
This development comes after two multi-storey buildings at 11/2 Christopher Road — one, under construction, and the other, occupied — were found tilting precariously against one another last week.
At around 11 a.m. on Thursday (January 30, 2025), around 14 labourers from the KMC arrived to start demolition work on the six-story under-construction building. But they were kept waiting till well beyond 4p.m., after the flat owners locked the gates from inside and refused to let them in.

“These two buildings were found tilting against one another. Notices were given to the occupiers of the building next to ours to vacate by January 25. But there are no notices from KMC regarding our building. We found out from news channels last night that our hard-earned homes will get demolished this morning,” said 35-year-old Ayan Das from inside the locked gates.
Flat buyers of a tilting under-construction building at Kolkata’s Tangra area protest against demolition efforts by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
DEBASISH BHADURI
Mr. Das was surrounded by at least a dozen fellow flat buyers who had been protesting since 7 in the morning by locking all entrances to the building and demanding to meet the KMC Mayor before any workers were let in for demolition work.
He added that all 35 flat buyers were supposed to move into the completed flats by early 2025. But after news broke that the two adjoining buildings are tilting against one another, the promoter of the building, Surojit ‘Taklu’ Manna, has been missing and unreachable.
“There are rickshawallahs, manual labourers, people with daily wage jobs among us, for whom losing one day of work means loss of pay. Yet as flat buyers, we all had to gather here to stop this wrongful demolition. If we still lose our homes, we might just have to take our own lives,” Mr. Das said.
Barricades were placed near the buildings and over 50 Kolkata Police personnel were deployed outside, as the protest heated up inside. At the football field in front of the two buildings, onlookers gathered to watch the scene unfold and KMC demolition workers sat and waited with their tools.
“We booked the flat in August 2023. My father spent all the money he had saved for my education and wedding to buy this flat. We do not have a single penny left. We can’t lose this home too,” said 26-year-old Bina Ray.
According to Ms. Ray, the flats cost the buyers close to ₹22 lakhs, of which most people have already paid between ₹13 lakhs to ₹16 lakhs.
“My father is a daily wage earner. He is still paying the hefty loans, just so we could have a proper roof over our heads,” she said.
25-year-old Rajni Singh highlighted that they had purchased the flats knowing full well that the building is being constructed “illegally” and by flouting KMC norms.
“Every building in this locality is illegal. We do not have the money to afford properly sanctioned houses. If ours has to be demolished for being illegally constructed, so should every other building here,” she said.
She questioned why for two years, everyone living around the building stayed silent on the house being built crooked and why KMC authorities and police did not stop the ‘illegal’ construction at the very beginning, instead of demolishing the building now.
On Thursday, KMC notices and a sign saying ‘dangerous house’ were seen stuck on the walls of the adjoining tilted building, Pushpanjali Apartments. Residents continue to live inside.
The notice, dated January 22, reads, “The department has inspected the above mentioned premises and it is found that the building is tilted and now stands in dangerous condition… Hence all the occupiers of this building are requested to vacate this building…”
On January 27, Mayor Firhad Hakim conducted meetings with civic officials and said that the under-construction building would likely have to be demolished first to test the stability of Pushpanjali Apartments.
Photos on DCX by Debasish Bhaduri
Published – January 31, 2025 10:24 am IST