The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation not to carry out construction or ancillary work related to Metro 3 between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. for two weeks.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N.M. Jamdar was hearing a plea filed by south Mumbai resident Robin Jaisinghani. He wanted the noise during construction not to exceed safe limits under the noise rules and no activities be carried out during the night. He also sought compensation of ₹10,000 per day for enduring the noise.
The plea stated, “There are no fixed hours during which construction activity is to be carried out. Sometimes construction activity is carried out till midnight and sometimes till the early hours of the morning, making it impossible to carry out any normal activity.”
Advocate Kiran Bagalia, appearing for MMRCL, told the court that it had requested the authorities permission to carry out construction at night and it had not yet been granted. They said only concrete filling work was being done during the night.
Mr. Jaishingani then said that all concrete filling was being done by trucks which was causing noise. He went on to say, “The Noise Pollution Rules and judgements of the High Court clearly state that no noise emitting activity should be carried out between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.”
The court said it also wants to hear the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board on this and adjourned the matter for two weeks. The 33.5 kilometres long metro will cover Colaba to SEEPZ and around 5,000 trees and 108 mangroves have been cut for the project.
