Metro-3 work breached noise norms: Locals

Mumbai: Residents of Marol claimed that they had to approach the MIDC police after the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) allegedly violated noise pollution norms as piling and drilling work for the Metro-3 was going on till 11 pm on Friday night. Residents said that they had approached the police, complaining of not only noise pollution but also a violation of Bombay high court’s order that had set the time for piling work from 10 am to 6 pm. According to L&T which is the contractor, work was stopped for a short while and residents were assured that they would adhere to the time limit set by the high court.

Advocate Godfrey Pimenta of Watchdog Foundation said that on Friday night around 11.04 pm residents of Marol Village, Andheri East in K-East Ward called the police control room to complain about the noise emanating from the drilling work at the municipal ground. “One of the residents measured the noise level which was close 85-90 dB at 10.55 pm,” said Mr Pimenta.

He further added that after the police was called and a site supervisor of L&T was taken to the MIDC police station and senior MMRCL officials spoke to him on the phone and assured that no work would be carried out after 10 pm. “Based on the said assurance given in the presence of MIDC Police Station, I did not press for the lodging of FIR,” said Mr Pimenta.  

“We will have no option in the future but to lodge an FIR personally against Ashwini Bhide, M.D. and S.K. Gupta, Director (Projects), MMRCL, A.M. Naik, M.D. of L & T Ltd. and Aziz Qureshi, site engineer,” said Mr Pimenta. The Bombay high court had said that piling work should be undertaken between 10 am and 6 pm only.

Both MMRCL and L&T officials refuted the allegations and said that no drilling work was being carried out at the said location. “The work that was going on was other than drilling. There was no violation of noise pollution norms or the high court orders,” said a spokesperson for L&T.