Five families displaced after the 2019 Bowbazar Metro subsidence received the keys to newly rebuilt homes on Thursday, marking the latest rehabilitation milestone in one of Kolkata’s longest-running infrastructure-related housing crises.
The homes were rebuilt by the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the executing agency for the East-West Metro project. Repeated soil subsidence and water seepage along the underground alignment damaged dozens of buildings in Bowbazar from August 2019, forcing residents to leave their homes.
Twenty-four houses affected during the first subsidence were damaged beyond repair and had to be demolished and rebuilt. Two homes were handed over more than a month ago, while the remaining keys are expected to be delivered by March 31, 2027, according to an official of DMP Nirman, the agency contracted by KMRC.
The latest handover took place at a time when several families were still dealing with the effects of years spent in temporary accommodation. Dipak Gupta, who is to move into a new G+3 building at Durga Pithuri Lane, said his seven-member family first lived in a hotel before shifting to a flat on Canal Street. He said the disruption had affected his children’s education and changed his life.
Swapan Boral, 73, who received the keys to his four-storey house, said his family had changed six addresses in eight years because temporary rental contracts lasted 11 months. The family had lived at the Bowbazar address for more than three decades before the subsidence forced them out.
The rehabilitation work has taken longer than earlier timelines indicated. Construction was scheduled to begin in April 2024, while a ground-breaking ceremony was held in February 2025. KMRC had previously said it wanted to hand over the homes by March 2026. However, construction at the epicentre of the 2019 disaster began only in 2026.
A KMRC engineer attributed the delay to the time required to close the Metro shafts and to continuous rain. An official of the construction agency said homes built above the tunnel required excavation and a four-metre-thick geotextile cushion to stabilise the ground. Deeper excavation and piling were undertaken for houses outside the tunnel zone.
Sajal Ghosh, BJP MLA from Baranagar, Bengal commerce and industries minister Tapas Roy and former councillor Biswarup Dey handed over the keys on Thursday. Dey said seven new homes had now been handed over and that the remaining 17 would be delivered within the next year.
Roy blamed a change in the Metro alignment under the previous government for the subsidence and the resulting damage, although the supplied report does not include an independent finding on that allegation. The episode has remained a test of how major underground infrastructure projects manage construction risk, housing loss and rehabilitation when engineering failures affect established neighbourhoods.
For affected residents, the handover restores more than a physical address after years of temporary living arrangements. Sanjoy Sen, secretary of the Bowbazar Mati-O-Manab Kalyan Society, said residents hoped the worst was over. KMRC and its construction contractor are expected to complete the remaining 17 rebuilt homes by the stated 2027 deadline.
