Bombay High Court tells Mumbai police to find out how noisy Metro 3 sites are

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed Mumbai police to check if the noise levels at the Metro-3 construction sites in Churchgate, Mahim and Cuffe Parade are beyond permissible levels, as has been claimed by Awaaz NGO.

A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Riyaz Chagla, said, "We're hearing a complaint by activist Sumaira Abdulali, who personally recorded the noise levels and found the decibel level at the Churchgate Metro station to be around 110 dB, which is beyond the permissible level." The recordings are from December 2017 and January 2018.

Abdulali said she had visited the areas for inspection after receiving complaints from local residents about the obstreperous construction sites. She submitted her recordings along with the complaint and sought directions from the court to the authorities for strict implementation of anti-noise rules.

Accordingly, the court has asked the local police to visit the mentioned areas with Abdulali and submit a report. The court also asked the police to file an affidavit on April 25 about what action they propose to take if the sites turn out to be extremely noisy.

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

Metro 3, an underground rail between Cuffe Parade and Seepz via Bnadra, has been entangled in a legal fight with residents over the chopping of trees and violation of noise pollution rules. The high court had earlier stayed the project as it requires over 5,000 trees to be axed, but the order was later vacated, much to the chagrin of environmentalists and citizen activists.

Incidentally, residents from DN Road in south Mumbai have also complained of damage to their buildings because of the Metro construction work.