Nightmare on Park Street

Fire broke out in the citys heritage Stephen Court building in Park Street
on March 23. The incident has left forty-three people dead and several injured
till date. The devastation brought to light the shabby conditions of buildings
across Kolkata. The concern was shared by the IT channel community in the city
over the existing infrastructure in GC Avenue and Chandni the two IT channel
hubs in Kolkata.

Speaking about the Park Street fire, Anil Bader of Optima Infotech, whose
office is located just 100 meters from the site where the outbreak occurred
says, "The fire broke out as a result of a short circuit. The electricity load
in the locality is high and the wires are dilapidated in the area. Furthermore,
the Stephen Court building is a over 150 years old heritage building and is used
for both residential as well as commercial purposes." Bader further elaborated
that although the fire tenders arrived in the end, they were ill-equipped and
also one hour late. Some equipment were brought over from Salt Lake, which is
the other end of the city.

The fire and the resulting tragedy has made the channel partners in Kolkata
wary of their existing situation. "The situation in GC Avenue is worse than that
of Park Street. The buildings here are much older and the electric wiring is
also in a hazardous state. Although the fire station is located just 1.5 Km from
the hub, yet on account of traffic congestion, it takes time to react in times
of an emergency," says KL Lalani, director, Lalani Infotech.

Elaborating more on the topic, Gaurav Goel of Eastern Logical says, "The fire
fighting equipment across the city needs to be improvised. There should be at
least one fire station or necessary fire equipment in every locality and the
reaction time of the authorities needs to improve."

While the channel partners in the area are concerned over the scenario across
the city, the government continues to stick to its conclusion that it was the
illegal construction in Stephen Court which was the cause of the fire. Although
it is true that there has been much illegal construction work in some of the
major buildings in Kolkata, yet channel partners are not ready to accept the CMs
justification of the incident.

"Corruption continues to eat into the heart of the city. Even though we opt
for legal construction or trade, it is the police and the local administrative
body themselves who pressurize us for bribe, informing that legal constructions
would involve too many hassles. Under this condition, it becomes too cumbersome
for an ordinary businessman to carry on his business without bribery," says one
of the leading channel players in the city.

As the IT hub in Kolkata is gradually entering into an expansion phase,
Chandni Chowk and Park Street have come into the limelight. Even though the
number of channel partners in Park Street is low when compared to GC Avenue or
Chandni Chowk, most of the leading vendors are concentrated in the area around
the Surendra Apeejay House.

Sharing his concern for the city and critiquing the inefficiency prevailing
in the metro, Naresh Bothra of Computer Exchange says, "We are always at risk,
considering the insufficient infrastructure in the city and the inefficiency of
the local administration. Electricity is not at all well managed in the city and
the traffic congestion often puts things out of order."

Avishek Rakshit/DQ Channels

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