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The Rs 164-crore Vivekananda Road flyover was supposed to ease the heavy traffic flow between Central Kolkata’s congested Girish Park area and the old business centres of Burrabazar and Posta, right next to the Hooghly River. But instead, what it did was perpetrate perhaps one of the worst urban tragedies Kolkata has ever witnessed. Coming on the heels of the state assembly elections, the incident is now being spoken of as a possible electoral game-changer, at least in the surrounding areas.
Kolkata has witnessed some rapid urban development work over the last few years – with several flyovers and tourist hotspots, the city has expanded into new townships and satellite cities. But this has come at a price for the 300-year-old city. If one went by Mamata Banerjee’s mega Kolkata-beautifying project, her London dreams are yet to come true. The city’s oldest parts are in a shambles. They are screaming for attention. But instead, in certain cases, they have been literally been ‘built over’. The Vivekananda Road flyover is a prime example.
The ‘Non-Bengali’ Kolkata
Girish Park, Posta, Burrabazar are all extremely busy trade centres. They are old; the skyscape occupied by overhead electrical wiring. It is also home to a part of the city’s population, whom the Bengalis include under ‘non-Bengalis’. Primarily Marwari, Baniya traders who have been in the city for years, it also includes later migrants from Bihar and other Hindi-speaking belts. They are the people who now live closest to the river, ironically, on whose far end, Didi is planning to build a London, sorry, Kolkata Eye. Central Kolkata is also the area where the BJP has some presence, owing to the proximity of its main party office.
Will the Vivekananda Road Flyover incident have an impact on how these people vote? According to popular Bengali news channels, most people who jumped into rescue work were the city’s ‘non-Bengalis’. The most medical help provided during the disaster was by the Marwari Relief Society hospital near Ganesh Talkies. But these are the same people whom we also watched being angered, devastated and betrayed.
A Flyover and Some People
Vijay Malik owns a tea stall, some 100 metres away from the accident site. He sells tea under what remains of the flyover. Malik thinks this incident should not, and probably will not, influence how people vote. He says, “It’s not that people aren’t angry. People are actually silent. Nobody is saying a word.”
Jab se yeh ban raha tha, sab makano se complaint kiya gaya ki iha par bridge banana theek nahi hai. Aur agar abhi ban gaya, to yeh hisab se nahi bana. (When the bridge was being built, the residents complained that it wasn’t a good idea to build it here. And once it was built, it wasn’t built properly.)
Janardan is in his early twenties. He was one of those who rushed to people’s aid the moment the bridge collapsed. He lives close by. “People are not happy with this flyover. There was a lot of opposition, and the work was not being done properly. A lot of people complained. The flyover runs so close to the buildings that even an accident on it could prove fatal.”
Burrabazar and Posta lie at the Hooghly River end of the flyover. According to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, around 600 buildings in Burrabazar are risky and hazardous, and another 500 partly risky. Officials of the West Bengal Fire Service say at least 100 people were injured in separate mishaps in which five buildings collapsed and 30 buildings caved in partially in 2007.
Markets of Malady
On the way, Kaushal Sharma, who owns a small business in Burrabazar said that the vast non-Bengali speaking community in the area has various groups and ethnicities. But according to him, where all of them unite is on the question of safety. “All one needs is to feel safe.”
The almost century-old Rajaketa market in Burrabazar is an anachronism. In its dark, exposed-wiring-laden dark alleyways, hundreds of establishments run their daily businesses. Umesh Kumar, who owns a small shop, feels that good administration and communication are essential for the people. “The police have become more oppressive under the present regime. Small businesses especially face a lot of problems when it comes to logistics like easy transportation.” Kumar believes that the BJP will not make an impact as it lacks grass-root level workers. He also thinks that the present government has not done much for small-time retailers.
Madhukar Navneet is the fourth generation of his family to run the ancestral business in the market. He is apprehensive that soon someday, just like the flyover, the market will also collapse if renovation is not done. He told us of a fire that broke out nearby on Holi, when many people found it difficult to escape from the age-old building.
The Vivekananda Road flyover tragedy has probably, in more than one way, demonstrated that just manicuring the city without taking into account its people and their problems, is not the best way to attain a popular mandate. The BJP may still have a long way to go, but it seems the TMC has gathered a fair share of opprobrium.
(Camera: Ritam Sengupta)
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