West Bengal Urban Development, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Firhad Hakim said on March 25 that 96 families affected by ground subsidence at Howrah’s Belgachia landfill would receive homes under the Banglar Bari scheme. The project is expected to take one-and-a-half years. The water pipeline has been restored, and drainage work is due to start in one month.

Seven 20-foot shipping containers were brought to a field beside Chatra Milan Sangha for temporary accommodation; families living farther from the landfill were advised to stay with relatives. Hakim said the damaged houses had been built by encroachers.

Howrah Municipality waste will no longer go to Belgachia. It is to be sent to Dhapa in Kolkata, Baidyabati in Hooghly and Arupara in Shibpur. The Belgachia landfill will also be emptied. Arupara residents protested when trucks arrived, opposing a new dumping site.

Howrah Municipal Corporation elections have been stalled since the civic body’s last term ended in 2018; a board of administrators is managing it.

Kolkata Metro Railway is replacing the steel third rail with an aluminium third rail on the down line between Belgachia and Tollygunge (Mahanayak Uttam Kumar). The work is expected to be completed by August.