As an underground metro train passed around 4.30 p.m., the cracked white marble floor of 62-year-old Surendrapal Singh’s house vibrated and a dull sound which accompanied it lasted for a little less than 10 seconds.
“See, this is what happens,” Mr. Singh said, pointing to the floor that, he said, developed cracks after the Yellow line of the Delhi Metro started operations in the area about seven years ago.
Cracked walls and floors of houses, damaged roof and a sense of fear are what have become common for several residents of South Delhi.
In two areas to which The Hindu paid visits in South Delhi — Begumpur village and Sarvapriya Vihar — the vibrations due to the movement of the trains could be felt inside houses and even on the streets.
On Friday, the DMRC, in an action-taken report, responding to the complaints by AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, said that they were working to solve the issue.
In Sarvapriya Vihar, residents said that the vibrations started after the Magenta Line of the Delhi Metro started operations last year and claimed that those are increasing with each passing day. In Begumpur, however, residents said that the vibrations have decreased over the years.
“In stretches where complaints of noise and vibrations were received, train fastening system has been changed resulting in an appreciable reduction in vibration in the locality,” the DMRC had said in its action-taken report on vibrations in Haus Khaz, Shivalik, Begumpur and Sarvapriya Vihar.
According to Mr. Bharti, hundreds of houses are affected. “We have been complaining about the issue to the DMRC over the years, but it has just been giving different excuses each time.”
“The existing cracks keep on deepening,” said Mr. Singh’s wife, Jaspal Kaur (58) pointing at those in their house in Begumpur village. “If we fix them and then the cracks reappear, what will we do? Who will spend money again?” she said.
Mr. Singh’s two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter has slipped and tumbled down multiple times inside the house, due to the uneven, cracked floor. “Around 20 days ago, she fell in the bedroom,” the toddler’s mother Harmeet Kaur (30) said.
At the house of 62-year-old Ashish Ghosh, a chartered accountant, the vibrations of the metro trains were felt six times in just half-an-hour and it was felt on the street outside the house as well.
Measuring machine
Showing a map of the metro lines in the area, he said, “The Magenta Line passes directly from under my house. The DMRC officials had installed a machine to measure the vibrations four times in my house, but they never gave me the report.”
R.G. Holla (58) showed the damaged roof of his house besides the cracked walls.
Sonia (42), a housemaker, who lives on the second floor of a building in Begumpur, showing the cracks on the wall of her house, said, “I had got the plaster done again last year, but there are cracks again. Sometimes at night, I rush outside mistaking the sound of metro trains for my husband’s bike’s sound.”
Earthquake
Aruna Sharma (76), who lives on Sarvapriya Vihar’s 7th street, said: “In July, my nephew had come to visit me. He was watching the TV, when he suddenly jumped out of the bed and said he felt an earthquake. I later told him that it was the metro,” she said, adding: “It is annoying and will affect our houses.”
