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More than 200 hotels have been shut down in Kolkata’s New Market area for failing to comply with basic fire safety regulations, leaving thousands of Bangladeshi tourists in the city facing uncertainty.
The hotels reportedly lacked fire licences, fire audits, police permission, fire alarms and emergency staircases.
Following a devastating fire at the Shikha Inn hotel on Mirza Ghalib Street, authorities launched a special drive to inspect fire safety measures at hotels and restaurants in the area.
Within just 48 hours from Saturday (August 21), authorities ordered the closure of 221 residential hotels and nine restaurants in Marquis Street, Collin Street, Sudder Street and Mirza Ghalib Street, an area popularly known as Kolkata’s “mini Bangladesh”. Electricity connections to several hotels were also disconnected for violating safety regulations.
The state government had earlier announced the formation of a committee to review safety measures at more than 3,500 residential hotels across Kolkata.
The committee comprises representatives from Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the fire department and CESC, the city’s power utility.
The crackdown has put Bangladeshi nationals staying in the New Market area in a difficult situation. Around 11,000 Bangladeshi tourists are currently in Kolkata, with nearly 7,000 staying in the New Market area.
Many have been forced to leave Kolkata, while others are searching for alternative accommodation or preparing to return home ahead of schedule.
Some tourists have managed to find new hotels through brokers, but room rates in some places have increased significantly, with some hotels charging 1.5 to twice the previous rates.
People involved in Kolkata’s tourism industry have also expressed concern. Hotels, restaurants, transport services, shopping outlets and other businesses in the area have developed largely around Bangladeshi tourists.
Shyamal Ghosh of Kolkata’s Green Line transport service said buses arriving from the border were full of passengers, but there were currently not enough hotels to accommodate them.
He said many tourists were moving to hotels in surrounding areas, where room rates had risen two to three times or more.
He supported the government’s zero-tolerance approach to safety violations but said hotel owners should have been given some time to comply with the regulations.
Since Monday morning (August 24), many Bangladeshi tourists have been seen leaving hotels in the New Market area. Some expressed anger and frustration over the situation.
Local rickshaw pullers, traders and other people whose livelihoods are linked to the New Market economy also voiced frustration over what they described as excessive enforcement.
Businesspeople said the hotel closures were a major setback at a time when the number of tourists had begun to increase following the resumption of tourist visas.
The authorities, however, said there would be no compromise on tourist safety and that action against hotels violating fire safety regulations would continue.
Nine Killed in Shikha Inn Fire
The crackdown followed a fire at the Shikha Inn residential hotel at 15G Mirza Ghalib Street in New Market at around 2am on Tuesday (August 18), which killed nine people.
Seven of the victims were Bangladeshi nationals and two were Indian citizens. The victims included six men, two women and a child.
The Bangladeshi victims were Akram Ali, 74; Debashish Dutta, 39; Afsana Shirmin, 27; Sarnashish Dutta, 2; Babu Ahmed, 37; Reboti Sarkar; and SM Alimuzzaman.
The two Indian victims were Sandeep Paswan, 19, from Jharkhand, and Jog Narayan Agarwal, 68, from Siliguri.