Metro work leads to changes in Azad Maidan's Ramleela

Officials from the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), executing the Metro-3 project, have assured the iconic Ramleela Mandal at Azad Maidan that noise from the metro work will not bother them during the 10-day long festivities. This, the mandal says, is important because it means that the noise from the metro work will not drown out the performance.

Shree Maharashtra Ramleela Mandal has been organising the Ramleela at Azad Maidan for almost four decades now. However this year the mandal has been moved almost 200 meters away from their original spot and the land in the new spot is marshy. "Due to the ongoing metro work, we had to change the place within the maidan. The land in the new spot is a bit marshy and rains are unpredictable thus increasing our problem," said Suresh Mishra, General Secretary of the mandal. He added, "We spoke to officials at the Metro site about the noise which would have been a huge problem for us but now they have assured us that the work is either underground or not much so the noise from it won't affect the sound of the actors during their performance," added Mishra.

The mandal organisers also alleged that this year they had to seek permission for using an approach gate for the event from the Metro unlike previous years. "We earlier used to have a gate that gave direct entry to our event but this time we had to request the Metro officials for the same. They agreed but every day there is a new issue that comes up," said Mishra. However, MMRDA officials said, "No permissions were required from us for Ramleela at Azad Maidan"