College Street market traders threaten strike

Around 1000 CSM shopkeepers were asked by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to relocate to Marcus Square in February 2006 for 18 months as CSM was to be converted into a mall.

Once ready, traders were promised shops inside the CSM mall.

The aim was to renovate the 89-year-old CSM into an international mall.

According to Bimal Nag, president of the Samity, "We cooperated with KMC and vacated stalls at CSM because we were promised completion of the mall within 18 months. Now 17 months have passed and no work is visible as the contract for building the mall was awarded to Bridge & Roof only after 16 months."

The Samity said as Marcus Square was a dilapidated area with no provision for drinking water and sanitation and suffering from blocked roads, few buyers visited Marcus Square.

Shops at Marcus Square were not able to generate even 20 per cent of the business they did at CSM.

"We have written to the chief minister of West Bengal to tell us exactly when the College Street Mall will be completed. We were promised it would be completed by August 15 this year, which now seems impossible. So after August 15 this year, we want the state government to compensate our losses by paying shops at least half of the business generated CSM."

Samity members claimed that on average, the 1,000 shops at CSM did sales of more than Rs 10,000 a day.

"The state government must work on improving infrastructure of Marcus Square. Marcus Square has abominable sanitation facilities," Nag alleged.