Kolkata: Three injured as balcony crashes on College Street

KOLKATA: The second floor balcony of a four-storey building at the intersection of College Street and Mahatma Gandhi Road collapsed on Friday morning, injuring three persons, two of them are in critical condition. The third injured person is a 50-year-old woman, said police sources.
The incident occurred at 8.50am when two plumbers were repairing a water pipeline on the second floor of the century-old building.While working, the plumbers could not assess the structural weakness of the building, which had been declared an unsafe structure by Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s buildings department three years ago.
Soon, the balcony of the building caved in, injuring the plumbers. They were rushed to NRS Medical College and Hospital where they were stated to be critical, according to the police.
The KMC buildings department started demolition of the unsafe parts of the balconies on the building’s second and first floors. A senior official of the department said the civic body would continue with the demolition work for the safety of people in the highly congested locality as the building stands at the intersection of two major thoroughfares and several shops are located on the ground floor of the building. “We will continue to raze several parts of the building, which may pose a threat to the life of pedestrians and customers visiting several saree shops situated near the building,” said the official.