Metro work: HC asks MPCB to monitor south Mumbai noise levels

The Bombay High Court today suggested the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to record ambient noise levels in south Mumbai for a month, before the court considers permitting the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited to carry out construction work during night for the Metro III line.

A division bench of Justices A S Oka and Riyaz Chagla was hearing an application filed by the MMRCL, seeking modification of an earlier high court order which prohibited the firm from carrying out metro work at Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai during the night.

The MMRCL and the contractor, Larsen and Toubro, claimed that the ambient noise levels at Cuffe Parade was 80 decibels during the day time and 61 db at night.

"The metro work will only be 10 decibels above the already existing noise levels," L&T's counsel S U Kamdar said today.

The bench, however, said ambient noise levels should be measured at regular intervals at least for a month so that a proper average can be arrived at.

"We want to know from the MPCB what procedure does it follow while measuring the ambient noise levels," the court said.

The bench directed a senior official from the MPCB to appear before it on July 11.

The high court had, in December last year, restricted the MMRCL from carrying out any construction work in the night as it was creating noise pollution and causing hassles to the local residents.

The 33-km Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro line III corridor will connect Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai to the SEEPZ economic zone and the airport in the city's Andheri suburb.