Krishnanagar (WB), Dec 28 (PTI) Policemen were posted to keep curious onlookers at bay at Fulia on NH 34 in Nadia district as a Haryana-based construction firm claimed to shift a house 70 feet from its present location.
"We are here to keep away the crowd and ensure vehicular movement along the road as some construction activity is taking place at the spot. We are here to maintain law and order," a police officer said today.
Claiming it would be able to shift an entire construction for the first time in West Bengal, Shib Charan Saini, the owner of the company said, the technology entailed setting up huge jacks (normally used in vehicles to lift up to change the wheels) and to disconnect the house from the ground base.
Done with mathematical calculations, the one-story pucca construction was gradually placed on trolley kept on iron tracks and being taken forward very slowly to a scheduled spot, the construction firm claimed.
The process had began on December 19 and it would take a month to finish the job, he said.
The owner of the house, Amal Sharma said since his house faced demolition threat due to the widening of 4 lanes of NH 34, he would have to incur a cost of Rs 17 lakh for constructing a new home.
However, with the government having given him Rs 16 lakh as compensation, he decided to try this new technique after hearing the firm from North India had completed such tasks in other states and even stopped tilting of caved-in buildings in Hooghly and Kharagpur of the state by the same technology.
The house has already been shifted by a distance of 20 feet, Sharma, his neighbours and the construction firm claimed.
Local panchayat authorities and district administration had not been officially intimated about the exercise and said they were not sure if it was structurally possible.
However, police confirmed there was a crowd at the spot for past ten days and vigil was kept on the activities.
