Kolkata hotel was operating ‘without proper documents’

It was deep into the night. The lights in the rooms of the residential hotel were off, and guests were fast asleep. Suddenly, smoke began to spread. This was the terrifying scene after a fire broke out at Shikha International, a hotel on Mirza Ghalib Street in Kolkata, around 2:00am on Wednesday. By the time firefighters arrived, smoke had engulfed the entire building.

Nine people died in the devastating incident, including seven Bangladeshi nationals and two Indians. Six others were injured and admitted to hospital.

Police have been unable to arrest the hotel owner, but the landowner has been detained, authorities said. The hotel has been temporarily shut down.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also announced separate investigation committees to examine safety measures at several commercial establishments in the city. The hotel is believed not to have had proper documentation. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Four of the Bangladeshi victims were from Kushtia, one from Dhaka and two from Satkhira. The four from Kushtia were Debashish Dutta, 39; his wife Afsana Sharmin, 27; their three-year-old son Sharnashish Dutta; and his father-in-law Akram Hossain, 60. They had travelled to India 15 days earlier for medical treatment.

The victim from Savar, Dhaka, was identified as Ahmed Babu, 37. The two victims from Satkhira were SM Alimuzzaman and Rebati Sarkar, both residents of Kaliganj, Satkhira.

A man from Jharkhand in eastern India, Sandeep Paswan, also died. He was an employee of the hotel. Another victim, Jognarayan Agarwal, 68, was from Siliguri, West Bengal.

When reporters visited the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, police officers and journalists were gathered around the building. The entrance to the fourth floor, where the fire broke out, was closed.

Rashed Ali, an employee at a carpet shop opposite Shikha International, told Prothom Alo, “At around 1:30am, we heard a woman and a man screaming from the window upstairs facing Free School Street. Many people were too frightened to come outside.” A fire station at New Market is located just one building away from the hotel. Rashed said firefighters reached the scene quickly and that the fire had started toward the rear of the building.

At the back of the building, a large air-conditioning unit and the adjacent wall were found blackened by smoke. Besides Shikha International, signboards for four other hotels—Star City, Demetric, Toiba and Mariam—were visible in the same compound. Authorities are examining whether these hotels have the required documents.

Enamul, a fruit seller who lives in a nearby house, told Prothom Alo, “People from Bangladesh, other parts of India and various countries come to this area looking for hotels, so new hotels keep opening here every so often.” A police officer standing beside Enamul commented that a large number of hotels in the area do not have legal documents.

An inspection found that the hotel had a very narrow entrance and an old-fashioned, curved iron staircase inside. There was no second exit or fire escape. In many places at the rear of the building, brick walls had been erected haphazardly to keep the structure standing.

Fire Services Minister Kaushik Chowdhury also questioned how so many hotels could have been operating under such conditions. He told local media that he had discussed the matter with the chief minister.

That these cramped hotels lack proper legal documentation was also evident from comments by Municipal and Urban Development Minister Agnimitra Paul.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, she said, “How did they obtain trade licences? How did the electricity supply corporation give them permission? How was electricity supplied to them? It also needs to be checked whether they had permission from the fire department. We will form a team to investigate. But I will say this: such illegal hotels cannot be allowed to operate in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area or anywhere in West Bengal.”

Expressing regret over the incident, West Bengal Chief Minister Shubhendu Adhikari said the fire was “the result of long-standing negligence and indifference.” In effect, the chief minister directly blamed previous governments for the disorder.