From the heart of Kolkata's Park Street is a road meandering into the lanes of Free School Street, Mirza Ghalib Street and Marquis Street areas – a reminder of sorts of a 'mini Bangladesh'. The name was colloquially coined with the influx of Bangladeshi tourists over decades, making Kolkata their favoured destination. Similar food habits and culture made tourists from the neighbouring country feel very much at home. What brings them to Kolkata are several reasons, ranging from meeting friends and relatives, medical purposes, shopping, and visiting tourist destinations in the city.
A fire around 2am on the night of August 19 at Hotel Shikha Inn on Mirza Ghalib Street killed nine people, five of whom were confirmed Bangladeshi nationals. Around 80 people were rescued from the building, including local residents. The nearly century-old building housed at least four other hotels apart from commercial establishments, all flouting fire safety norms with no fire exit, which was blocked by another office set up in that space.
Over the years, similar commercial establishments obtained fire safety licences, many flouting norms with the expansion of offices and hotels. The Hotel Shikha Inn fire brought forward glaring inadequacies in fire safety compliance, subsequently resulting in a safety audit of hotels and guesthouses in the area by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). Almost 50 hotels, guesthouses, and restaurants received notices from KMC and were shut down overnight. This included Hotel Shikha Inn and an eatery by the same owner across the street. The hotel owner is behind bars.
Magnolia's Maggi Guest House on Marquis Street received a KMC notice for running the hotel with AC rooms, while the fire licence procured was for non-AC rooms. The owner is working out ways to get necessary clearance to reopen for business. "It is impacting business, as we have to turn away many customers. There is no clarity when hotels will reopen. Why should other hotels be shut down because of a fire in one hotel?" said the hotel manager.
What makes these accommodations viable for Bangladeshi tourists is the low-cost factor, starting from a tariff of ₹1,200 a night. The accessibility of restaurants serving Bangladeshi cuisine, diagnostic centres for medical check-ups, and commercial markets within walking distance is convenient for tourists.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Urban Development, Agnimitra Paul, said licences will be cancelled for flouting norms or for excuses of no space for a fire exit. KMC taking strict measures resulted from a fire in a hotel in Birbhum district’s Rampurhat, where eight died in a fire two days before the Kolkata fire incident.
"It is not our goal to shut down restaurants. We don’t get any peace or happiness by doing this. Our aim is to see incidents like in Rampurhat or Free School Street do not occur," Paul explained.
Bangladeshi tourists unaware of the current shutdown of hotels are left hunting for accommodation upon landing in the city. Irene is one such Bangladeshi national who had got off a bus in Marquis Street and was left clueless. "We have just arrived. We thought we would freshen up, eat, and be more relaxed, as we are tired after the journey. Then we would set out to meet the doctor, which is the purpose of our visit. Now there is no hotel, which is a big problem for us. We are suffering as we are now searching for hotels," Irene said.
Jamal and his wife visited Kolkata for the first time and were left hunting for accommodation. "We had to search for hotels as we did not know beforehand they were closed.”
For Mukul Talukdar, it is his 17th visit to the city. He goes to Bengaluru for check-up post his bypass surgery, which was done a few years ago, and makes his way to Belur Math in Kolkata. This time, things are different. "Many hotels have shut, which we didn’t know. We don’t know what to do. We have to make some arrangements."
The larger story is the economic impact on commercial establishments with uncertainty looming large since August 2024 over the availability of visas and the feasibility of Bangladeshis travelling to Kolkata. Bangladeshi travellers avail a medical visa or a tourist visa. Before 2024, approximately 5,000 medical visas were issued per day. In the current scenario, the number of visas issued per day has yet to return to this figure.
The Bangladesh Deputy High Commission held meetings with West Bengal tourism department officials and has been assured that once hotels and restaurants adhere to the 30-day deadline to comply and obtain fire safety licences, hotels catering to Bangladeshi nationals will reopen. A 24/7 helpline number was initiated by the Commission after the fire to assist Bangladeshis on the current situation. There is also a travel advisory issued in Bangladesh for tourists coming to Kolkata about hotels post the shutdown. "We shifted tourists to safer accommodation after some shut down and spoke to hotels to accommodate Bangladeshi tourists visiting Kolkata in the current situation," said Mohammad Khaled, Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata.
Uncertainty in travel and visa availability ranged from political unrest in the neighbouring country after the Sheikh Hasina government was overthrown and until a new government was sworn in this year in February. Other factors, like the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) with Bangladeshi nationals fleeing India, played a part in the dwindling number of Bangladeshis in the city. Then came the diktat from the Suvendu Adhikari government of sealing porous borders and sending back illegal Bangladeshis, with detention centres set up in border districts.
All these factors resulted in an economic hit that hotels, restaurants, and shopping markets took, which primarily cater to Bangladeshi-centric customers. The situation was normalising in the past two months, with visa holders bringing back business to the city of joy with their visits. The 50-odd hotels and guesthouses have a 30-day window to get fire safety licences in order since receipt of KMC’s notice. Until then, the uncertainty continues regarding business picking up again.
