Bidhannagar Municipality chairman Biswajiban Majumdar has decided to serve a stopwork notice on Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the agency implementing the project on a public-private-partnership basis with Simplex. "The court has asked the municipality whether it had granted permission to build the parking plaza. We will have to submit in court that no such application was applied for," he said.

The residents also have a written undertaking from the municipality, claiming that the draft development plan for Bidhannagar has "no provision for a parking lot at DC 38".

KMDA chief executive officer P R Baviskar, however, clarified: "This plot, owned by the urban development department, was handed over to us for this project." Simplex director B K Mundra echoed: "No playground was marked anywhere in the land records."

Kamal Kar, a former NRI and one of the petitioners, who stays at Residency Apartments, said: "I have paid a lot to buy this flat. A major attraction was this patch of green overlooking my verandah. If the authorities were to block it, we would feel cheated."

G K Fouzdar, president of DB Block Residents' Association, said: "We'll fight to protect this patch of green."

Urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said: "We have called a meeting to sort out the issue."